DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: DocBook with AbiWord?

["Matt G." <matt_g_ at hotmail dot com>]

>From: Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla <sevillar@team.ph.inter.net>
>Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook with AbiWord?
>Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 13:59:06 +0800
>
>>writing my articles.  But it's not apparent how I could get full
>>use of docbook from AbiWord.  I asked about this on the
>>abiword-dev@abisource.com mailing list, but I thought I'd ask
>>here too, if anyone has any tips on using AbiWord to make
>>docbook documents.
>
>Well, short version is you can't, not really because...
>
>>AbiWord is an open source WYSIWYG word processor.
>
>That's the point.  Any WYSIWYG processor will by necessity wind
>up using docbook as a formatting language, which is most
>definitely NOT what docbook was designed to be. Maybe a more

Amen to that!  My favorite quote on the subject is:

    The trouble with WYSIWYG is that what you see is all you get.
	    -- Brian Kernighan


IMO, this is *not* religious war material.  It's just a simple tradeoff: if 
a word processor suits your needs, then don't bother with the complexity of 
DocBook.  If you need its power & flexibility, then it will come at a price 
(though there are things you can do to minimize this -- see below).


If you want the benefits of DocBook with as little hassle as possible, then 
get a good, DTD-aware XML editor.  My suggestion is then to download the 
HTML copy of _DocBook: The Definitive Guide_ (get it from docbook.org), and 
keep it open in a browser.  In my opinion, working that way is actually 
*easier* than clicking through cryptic menus and dialog boxes of any of 
these GUI-based word processors I've used.

I work this way (though I use vi), even though I own a printed copy of TDG 
(which was very useful for getting started & reading while away from the 
computer).

DocBook is so thoroughly documented, in the reference section of TDG, that 
99% of the time, it concisely provides *exactly* what you need to know.  I 
claim that, working that way, a newbie can be 90% up the learning curve, in 
an afternoon, so long as you already have all your tools setup properly.

BTW, I especially like that the refentrys, in TDG, have "processing 
expectations", "See Also", an alphabetized list of the children, a list of 
an element's parents, and often even examples.


Matt Gruenke


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