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Re: sgml vs xml
Ben Hratshorne wrote:
> I was confused by this. Though I understood the difference between
> SGML/XML and DSSSL/XSL (you're right it was a typo), I thought that if
> you use SGML, you must use DSSSL, and if you use XML, you must use XSL.
> I was unaware you could use DSSSL with XML. Is the converse true - can
> you use XSL with SGML?
No. You must first convert SGML into XML. You can use tools like sx for
this task.
> Can any of you suggest a web page that might have the same document in
> XML and SGML, and show differences in both the document and in how to
> compile it?
The biggest difference is that XML doesn't support minimalization
features of SGML which allow you to not close some tags and use other
markup shortcuts.
> But... at this point I have one (mostly) complete manual in SGML. Any
> tips on what I might need to change to switch it over, besides the first
> line? I think the only tricky part is that I have a couple of
> conditionally compiled sections:
>
> <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
>
> <!-- change INCLUDE below to IGNORE and none of the sections marked
> %internal / versoin2 will be included when you compile the document.
> -->
> <!entity % internal "INCLUDE">
> <!entity % version2 "IGNORE">
>
> ]>
>
> <book>
> ...
> ...
> <![%version2; [
> <section id="installtunnel">
> ...
> ...
> ]>
This is not supported by XML. But you can substitute this by profiling
http://www.sagehill.net/xml/docbookxsl/SpecialHandling.html#Profiling
> Will those have to be completely redone in XSL? Though I conceptually
> understand the XML/XSL/DSSSL thing now, I'm still fuzzy on
> implementation details.
Many XSL stylesheets parameters are very similar to those known from
DSSSL. It is usually not so hard to port DSSSL customizations to XSL.
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Jirka Kosek
e-mail: jirka at kosek dot cz
http://www.kosek.cz