[TriLUG] DocBook, SGML, XML and that kind of stuff

rpjday rpjday at mindspring.com
Sat Dec 1 10:54:58 EST 2001


On Sat, 1 Dec 2001, Brent Verner wrote:

> On 01 Dec 2001 at 05:41 (-0500), rpjday wrote:
> | 
> |   i'm just launching myself into learning how to use docbook
> | to write more of my little mini-docs, and i'm interested in
> | chatting (off-line) with anyone who's been there and done 
> | that, if they're willing to help me get up to speed.
> | i'd be happy to make it worth your while.
> 
> The docbook book is available online:
>   http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/documentation/reference/
> 
>   I'd like to help more, but I'm just getting my head around docbook
> as well.  The book is /very/ good.

believe me, a lack of documentation is *not* my problem here.  i've
already downloaded the latest version of "docbook: the definitive guide",
and have also perused the HOWTO and a couple of online tutorials, which
has (not surprisingly) inspired the burning question, "how the hell do
i *start* writing a document?"

given that i know zero about docbook, i'm finding that most of the
documentation on it is about as useful as *most* of the documentation
i find on a lot of topics -- not very.

like i said, i want to use it to write up all these little mini-docs,
so i guess i can appreciate the irony of realizing that, once i 
figure this stuff out, the next mini-doc i write will be how to
use docbook.  sigh.

really, what i want is a nice, point-form recipe for, "here are the
RPMs you need, here are the RPMs you *don't* need, this is what they're
for, here's a sample docbook file, here's how to render it in various
formats, etc."  anyway, end of rant, time to slog through the book and
see if i can figure out how it relates to what i see in front of me
on red hat 7.2.

rday

-- 
Robert P. J. Day
Eno River Technologies, Chapel Hill NC
Unix, Linux and Open Source corporate training




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