Re: [docbook-apps] Newbie's therapy

["Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday at mindspring dot com>]

On Sat, 24 May 2003, Antonios Christofides wrote:

> When I first tried docbook, back in 1999, I remember I had a very hard
> time with it and quit. At that time I had RedHat 6.2. A couple of weeks
> ago I thought I should try it again. Debian 3.0. "apt-get install
> docbook-xml docbook-doc docbook-dsssl docbook-xsl-stylesheets
> docbook-utils jade openjade xalan ..." Everything installs with an ease
> that Microsoft would envy, but nothing works in the end. Three days of
> total frustration.
> 
> It is terrible for a newbie to have to read for endless hours in order
> to decide whether they should first try jade, openjade, xalan, saxon,
> etc. etc., and whether they should use dsssl, xsl, or css, and when they
> attempt any of those to run into really serious problems. So far I've
> only had some success with xalan and xsl.
> 
> Could you please give me a hint on which tools you'd recommend, and a
> couple of guidelines to get me going?  Thanks! And I promise I'll flood
> you with more specific questions afterwards :-)

from one newbie to another, since i've been down that road:

  docbook-xml + docbook-xsl-stylesheets
  xsltproc
  FOP (for XSL-FO -> PDF), needs java

that will at least get you started.

rday


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