Re: Q) Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Converting from DocBook/SGML to DocBook/XML

[Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian dot rahtz at computing-services dot oxford dot ac dot uk>]

Ed Nixon writes:
 > 1. The XEP and Antenna House products are commercial. I've checked into the 
 > pricing and they are way out of line for a small business or individual 
 > consultant's budget.

indeed, but they are there if you need them

 > 2. PassiveTeX may ultimately the most flexible and powerful environment 
 > because of its relationship with TeX. You would need to know TeX quite well 
 > in order to exploit this potential.

either *very* well, not not at all. hacking Passivtex is not a trivial
task...

 
 > When last I looked PassiveTeX was 
 > targeted only at the TEI XML dialect. It's hard to believe there would not 
 > be a DocBook version around but I'm not aware of it and willing to admit 
 > ignorance (and accept help) on this count. I'm not sure how difficult it is 
 > to configure PassiveTeX to the Docbook dialect. It would likely depend on 
 > how much of docbook you use or need.

sorry, you misunderstand. PassiveTeX process XSL Formatting Objects
XML. you transform your TEI or Docbook or whateve to XSL FO however
you like. XSL FO does not know how the FO was created!

 > 3. FOP just seems to move so slowly. It doesn't seem to be a priority with 
 > the Apache organization.

I wouldn't say that. I see work on it every day.


 > 4. DSSSL has always seemed to be "from Mars" to me in spite of its ISO 

is that good or bad?

sebastian