[TriLUG] new developments in docbook/xml

[rpjday]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2001, Ed Hill wrote:

> Hi Rob,
> 
> I do appreciate you posting the info about DocBook-on-Red-Hat upgrades.
> And, no, you're not clogging the list with OT junk (see the LOTR thread
> for that...)  ;)

yeah.  bunch of dweebs who aren't man enough to handle harry potter. :-)
> 
> So my queston is: why upgrade these packages?  What are the benefits?
> Is is just a switch from SGML to XML?  I see that theres some sort of
> (minor?) "chunking" ref error as Kevin mentioned below (but have not
> seen it yet in my experience).  Are there any show-stopper errors that
> these new packages fix?
> 
> Just wanted to get a handle on the "why" before diving in...

good question.  first, the "chunk" error shouldn't happen *now*,
at least according to the red hat guy i've been talking to.
the bigger issue -- what does all this upgrading get you?

since i have no experience in SGML to start with, it's hard for me
to compare the two.  as i see it, doing these upgrades gives you
the chance to code docbook in XML rather than SGML, and to use
extensible style sheets (XSL) too.  i'm sure there are other
benefits, i just don't know them offhand being new to all of this.

if you're already using SGML and, say, CSS, and you're happy with
it, terrific -- there's probably *no* reason to change, i guess
it's that simple.  but since this is my first stab at writing
generic documents and being able to render them in different formats,
i figured i might as well invest the time to figure out the latest
tools since, according to everything i've read, XML and XSL is the
way things are going.

anyway, as i said, i'm sure most trilugers have no interest in
this, which is why i was suggesting a separate mailing list or
forum somewhere.

rday