[TriLUG] Fwd: Re: [docbook-apps] db for math/chem dissertation/thesis

[Mike Mueller]

On Thursday 28 August 2003 17:08, Ed Hill wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 16:22, Mike Mueller wrote:

> > Looks like SGML/XML is an uphill climb for some advanced tasks.  Looks
> > like an area ready for some pioneering work. WYSIWYG in acedemia is a
> > chilling thought.  Acedemia beholden to Redmond. B-r-r-r!  OpenOffice is
> > OK I guess if it's XML in source form. LaTeX is venerable but is not
> > browser oriented (IIRC). Gotta get beyond this paper thing.

I've since seen something about DRM stuff being woven into the next release 
of MS Office.  The source can _only_ be read using approved tools?

> The solution that we (and a lot of other academics) are currently using
> is LaTeX2HTML (plus we have a bunch of custom PERL to further cleanup
> and "wrap" the HTML).  You can see some examples of stuff that I'm
> working on at:
>
>  http://mitgcm.org/dev_docs/
>  http://mitgcm.org/dev_docs/online_documents/node1.html
>  http://mitgcm.org/dev_docs/online_documents/node18.html

The examples are very nice.  I've done enough db to know that I was looking 
at the result of a large effort. 

Is this the same or same-but-different as the toolset you describe above?

http://hutchinson.belmont.ma.us/tth/

> ps - Isn't it just *amazing* how long Knuth's TeX package has
>   lasted?  Its what -- 20+ years? -- later and nothing (either
>   Open Source or commercial) seems capable of producing better-
>   quality mathematical markup.  Will we have to wait for Knuth's
>   reincarnation in order to get a better replacement?  ;-)

After looking at MathML and LaTeX, I conclude that LaTeX is the superior 
mark-up language.  To be fair and balanced :-) I found this: 
http://xmlsucks.org/
-- 
Mike Mueller
324881 (08/20/2003)
Make clockwise circles on the floor with your right foot; now, without 
looking at your foot, use the index finger on your right hand to draw the 
number "6" in the air