>From: Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook with AbiWord? >Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 13:59:06 +0800 > >>writing my articles. But it's not apparent how I could get full >>use of docbook from AbiWord. I asked about this on the >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list, but I thought I'd ask >>here too, if anyone has any tips on using AbiWord to make >>docbook documents. > >Well, short version is you can't, not really because... > >>AbiWord is an open source WYSIWYG word processor. > >That's the point. Any WYSIWYG processor will by necessity wind >up using docbook as a formatting language, which is most >definitely NOT what docbook was designed to be. Maybe a more
Amen to that! My favorite quote on the subject is: The trouble with WYSIWYG is that what you see is all you get. -- Brian Kernighan IMO, this is *not* religious war material. It's just a simple tradeoff: if a word processor suits your needs, then don't bother with the complexity of DocBook. If you need its power & flexibility, then it will come at a price (though there are things you can do to minimize this -- see below). If you want the benefits of DocBook with as little hassle as possible, then get a good, DTD-aware XML editor. My suggestion is then to download the HTML copy of _DocBook: The Definitive Guide_ (get it from docbook.org), and keep it open in a browser. In my opinion, working that way is actually *easier* than clicking through cryptic menus and dialog boxes of any of these GUI-based word processors I've used. I work this way (though I use vi), even though I own a printed copy of TDG (which was very useful for getting started & reading while away from the computer). DocBook is so thoroughly documented, in the reference section of TDG, that 99% of the time, it concisely provides *exactly* what you need to know. I claim that, working that way, a newbie can be 90% up the learning curve, in an afternoon, so long as you already have all your tools setup properly. BTW, I especially like that the refentrys, in TDG, have "processing expectations", "See Also", an alphabetized list of the children, a list of an element's parents, and often even examples. Matt Gruenke _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com