DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook to TeX

[Michel Goossens <Michel dot Goossens at cern dot ch>]

Daniel Veillard wrote:
>   Hum, one of the thing which strikes me is that there is no
> direct DocBook XML -> TeX
> transformations. Basically they require going through FO where the
> semantic is lost and only content/formatting is left, where then TeX
> is generated.
>   Granted, LaTeX is not TeX, but isn't there more semantic to TeX than
> just content/formatting . Wouldn't a direct DocBook XML -> TeX transformation
> makes senses (I'm not asking if someone wants to do it or if it's simple ;-)
> 
I completely agree with you that DocBook to LaTeX is a possible way to go
(although it is a little politically incorrect, since XSL-FO is supposed
to be, eventually, the meta-format for all output formats), and indeed
there is Ramon Casella's db2latex project on sourceforge, see the URL
http://sourceforge.net/projects/db2latex (Ramon has not done much
development since last April, but he told me last November that he might
do some more work on his project). The main problem is that it relies in
part on Norm's XSL stylesheets for DocBook, so unless one follows what
Norm is doing they get (and in fact are) out of synch and no longer
function correctly. m

Dr. Michel Goossens              Phone:(+41 22) 767-4902
CERN, IT Division                Fax:  (+41 22) 767-8630
CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland   Email: michel.goossens@cern.ch