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RE: Creating Different Output Formats Using DocBook V4.1 XML


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Lancaster [mailto:alexl@bigfoot.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 5:03 PM
> To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Creating Different Output Formats Using
> DocBook V 4.1 XML
> 
> >>>>> "SR" == Sebastian Rahtz 
> <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk> writes:
> 
> SR> Jorge Godoy writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> >> - texinfo
> SR> why?
> >>  It's output is good!
> 
> SR> good god. we do have different aesthetics.....
> 
> Texinfo is not only about TeX, but mainly about `info' documents,
> IMHO, which is better form of hypertext than HTML, especially for
> reference guides/API docs because: 1) it's searchable across pages
> (not just within a page like HTML), 2) can be manipulated purely by
> keystrokes (and yes, I know about lynx, but info's more sophisticated
> w.r.t. documentation features, than lynx); 3) info uses a lightweight
> reader, which doesn't require a behmoth like Netscape... great if you
> just want to quickly look up an API or a function within Emacs, whilst
> programming...

I hate to say this, being an Emacs fan (although not a member of the
religion), but not everybody uses Emacs.  Not to mention that all but 1 info
reader that I've used so far is just about IMPOSSIBLE for a *nix newbie to
use.  The exception is the GNOME Help Browser, and that uses an info to HTML
converter to do everything.  :-)  Searchable across pages is a nice feature,
but I've got no idea how to do that.  BTW, HTML doesn't require a behemoth,
it can be done quick and dirty, as has been done with GNOME and KDE.  There
are also programs that use the Mozilla engine for just it's HTML
capabilities, making them extremely small and fast.  The other point to
mention here is the prevalence of HTML vs. the prevalence of info as
Hypertext documents.  HTML may not be better, but it's bigger and much
better known.  I'm not saying that texinfo is necessarily bad, just that I
can't come up with a really good reason for needing it.
	Greg

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