[TriLUG] Documentation format question

[Ben Pitzer]

Chris,

I've started using a Wiki environment for documentation purposes at my data
center.  It's got a simplified markup language, but if you really go into
it, it can get pretty extended.  The most important stuff is easy, however.

I use PMwiki (http://www.pmwiki.org/), however I've heard MoinMoin
(http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/), Twiki (http://twiki.org/), and TikiWiki
(http://tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php) are popular.  PHPWiki needs alot of
work, and has a much less professional interface.

As for the PDF printable feature, well, PMwiki does have a feature, but
requires Adobe Acrobat's 'import from web' feature.  I don't think that it
or any other wiki have the ability to generate PDF files on their own,
although it is OSS written in PHP, so you might be able to do it on your
own.  PMwiki even has a page written up about the feature that you request,
and has a list of issues that must be addressed to handle it:
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Development/WikiBooks

Also, check out #wiki.  If anybody is awake, they can probably help you out
in choosing a suitable wiki, if that's what you want to try.

Regards,
Ben Pitzer

---------------------------------------------

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 --Ben Franklin--




> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
> Behalf Of Chris Knowles
> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 1:05 PM
> To: trilug at trilug.org
> Subject: [TriLUG] Documentation format question
>
>
> OK, So I've been consigned to document everything about several of our
> servers, which entails all but writing a book.  (In fact, it probably
> will entail a book.)
>
> So, being the F/OSS person that I am, what do I want to use, given that
> I have the following restrictions
>
> 1) Can't be tied to one particular editor/environment
> 2) Need to be able to generate output as
> 	a) print
> 	b) html
> 	c) pdf
> 3) The ability to run the whole thing under windows if absolutely
> needed.  (I'm using Debian, so bonus points if it's particularly easy
> there)
>
> I'm already familiar with LaTeX and DocBook, and I've got reasons why I
> like both of them for this, so I thought I'd ask for recommendations for
> either a) completely different systems, or b) addons or tricks that make
> LaTeX or DocBook the best in your opinion.
>
> As always, thanks!
>
> CJK
> --
> Chris Knowles <chrisk at trilug.org>
>