Stuart, Thanks for answering my message. Yes, indeed, this does help. It points me in the direction of things that I need to learn & understand to really use asciidoc more effectively.
I did get the idea that a2x was basically a somewhat like a make program for asciidoc and associated tools. I was pointing to it as it seems to have become the (somewhat) default front-end to the toolchain that most people are using. I really liked the last example that you gave. Obviously it is a highly customized toolchain and set of templates. The one thing that I am still wondering: has anyone made an attemtp to compile some sets of templates / toolchain configurations / etc. as a supplement to the standard asciidoc supplied templates / tools? (Not specifically asking you, Stuart, putting this out to the list in general.0 George On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 6:48 PM, Stuart Rackham <[email protected]> wrote: > George De Bruin wrote: >> >> Okay, >> >> Being a n00b to asciidoc, I have to agree with Giles, and follow up >> with a few questions / comments. >> >> 1. Question: is there a collection of templates / extensions for other >> document types? I look at LaTeX and see that there are things for >> many different academic and professional style documents, and even >> extensions for producing presentations, etc. Has anyone started >> working on expanding the available templates? >> >> 2. Question: what toolchain(s) do I really need to understand for >> using asciidoc? I have been struggling through understanding various >> parts of the system, and using a2x -v to see what is being invoked, >> but that is really not giving me a complete overview of how things are >> working, and what knowledge I need to build to understand how the >> processing is actually working. >> >> 3. Comment: I'm struggling working with the documentation. While it >> is clear in the topics it discusses, I am really looking for a pair of >> documents. The first would be something that gives me a more >> procedural structured approach to each of the major document classes: >> a section / part for articles, then a section / part for books, then >> maybe an advanced multi-file book section / part. A seperate document >> would get into the complete features / technical nitty-gritty for the >> tool chain, and each of the templates, etc.I know there are comments >> in the current documentation that it needs to be split up, is there >> any work being done on this? If I felt I was understanding asciidoc >> better, I would offer to help with this. >> >> Anyway, I would appreciate assistance as a n00b with asciidoc, but not >> as a computer n00b (I'm a unix/linux server administrator, and someone >> who conceptually understands SGML/LaTeX, but has always used a GUI >> front-end for them, and am now trying to break away and get myself >> back into a preferred methodology for working with everything from >> documents to shell scripts and source code...) > > All that asciidoc does is generate the DocBook markup, nothing more. You are > then free to use whatever DocBook processor apps best suit your needs to > generate the output presentation format (see > http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/userguide.html#X12). The set of apps you > use > to convert DocBook to presentation formats is the DocBook Toolchain. > > DocBook was designed to be a semantic markup, so it does not have facilities > for visual styling or customization, this must be handled by the downstream > toolchain apps. > > Don't forget that, in addition to DocBook, asciidoc can also gererate HTML > directly without the need for any toolchain apps. > > a2x is a wrapper script that is included in the AsciiDoc distribution to > ease the toolchain learning curve: > > - a2x sequences and runs asciidoc and toolchain commands for the two common > DocBook toolchains: dblatex and DocBook XSL Stylesheets + FOP. > > - a2x doesn't actually generate any presentation files, it just runs the > commands that do. > > - a2x uses the modest style sheet additions that come with AsciiDoc for both > DocBook XSL Stylesheets and dblatex (see > http://code.google.com/p/asciidoc/source/browse/docbook-xsl/asciidoc-docbook-xsl.txt > and > http://code.google.com/p/asciidoc/source/browse/dblatex/dblatex-readme.txt). > > So you see, when it comes to issues of output styling and customization they > are usually something that can only be tweaked by customizing the toolchain > commands and not asciidoc. > > To get this sort of highly customised output > (http://www.proconx.com/gcpmg/UMGCPMG-0801.pdf) requires digging deep into > toolchain app documentation. > > Hope this makes things a bit clearer. > > > Cheers, Stuarts > > >> >> George >> >> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 3:57 PM, Giles <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Blimey! is what I want to do so specialised that it doesn't warrant a >>> >>> --doctype pamphlet >>> >>> feature? >>> >>> Its a shame that asciidoc assumes that I am writing a book, but then >>> again I suppose that is what it was designed for. >>> >>> On Mar 19, 8:53 pm, Mark Fernandes <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Giles <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> I was wondering is it possible to generate a 1 page pdf file from my >>>>>> curriculum vitae located here: >>>> >>>> [....] >>>>>> >>>>>> I tried to use a2x , but I don't want to generate a cover page, or >>>>>> Table of Contents >>>> >>>> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 4:12 PM, Cameron Eagans <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Why not just print to PDF from the one that's generated by a2x? You >>>>> can just selectively include pages that way. >>>> >>>> How much time have you got? :) >>>> >>>> The quickest way I suggest is to do as Cameron says and only print the >>>> pages you want. Another option is to use pdftk to cut out pages you >>>> do not want electronically and then print the ones that remain. >>>> >>>> http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ >>>> >>>> Mind you, either printing, or electronic page removal do not change >>>> the page numbers (should you need to have page numbers included), so >>>> page numbers are always wrong and so on. Also the title page may not >>>> appear they way you want it to. >>>> >>>> Another option is to convert the txt to docbook and open the docbook >>>> XML file in a word processor like OpenOffice. This eases some of the >>>> transition pain caused by the other approaches but this solution, too, >>>> can be unwieldy in other aspects like why should one need to use a >>>> word processor in the first place. >>>> >>>> A final solution that I can recommend is to convert the txt file to >>>> tex (LaTeX) and then apply a style file to get the PDF the way you >>>> want it to display. The trouble with this approach is now you are left >>>> fiddling with LaTeX and TeX, which can consume copious amounts of your >>>> time. >>>> >>>> A solution that I have not explored is to fiddle around with FOP >>>> settings to display the page the way you want to. I am not aware of >>>> how to do that so I cannot help you much there, hopefully someone else >>>> will be able to fill in those gaps for you. >>>> >>>> Good Luck, you are going to need it. :) >>>> >>>> Mark. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "asciidoc" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/asciidoc?hl=en. >>> >>> >> >> >> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "asciidoc" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/asciidoc?hl=en. > > -- --- Faster moments spent spread tales of change within the sound... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "asciidoc" group. 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