Re: [SLUG] Tools for documentation.

[Michael Lake <Mike.Lake@nospam.uts.edu.au>]

> Rodos wrote....
> > I do what something that
> > can create very nice paper output as well as an online version.

Jeff Waugh wrote:
> DocBook!
> Can do. DSSSL exports to HTML (a bit of a hack), RTF, TeX, etc.
> 
> > Currently I am thinking LaTeX.
> 
> At the risk of being flamed, I'd recommend you don't go with TeX because it
> could be seen to be `legacy technology'. 
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ah! lucky you put that proviso in or I might have bitten
stronger ;-)
Its as legacy as is UNIX. 

> Certainly, there's a brilliant mind
> and brilliant software behind it, but unless you're writing documentation
> with very stringent typographical requirements (ie. physics, maths, those
> sorts of things), you're walking into the past.
LaTeX is still being developed - its not frozen or dropped
but very alive. eg. the Omega project is a complete
internationisation of LaTeX so that all of the worlds
languages can be typeset.
 
> Whilst TeX is very flexible and can be quite clean, it's a closer mix of
> content and layout. That's not so great when you suddenly have the urge to
> do outrageous database-like things with your documents.
Content and layout are separate in LaTeX. I don't see that
DocBook is much different in that regard. Both are markup
langages and both have `style sheets' that are separate
files to the content.

We need to find out *what* Rodos wants to document. Does he
need to collaborate with others?

DocBook looks bloody good and could be seen to be better
supported by  more modern programers. But is Rodos wanting
to write a HOWTO? If so use DocBook. A mathematics paper?
Use LaTeX. If there is a DocBook style sheet for what he
wants to do and he needs to collaboratte work with others
who use DocBook then it's DocBook. 

Does he want to document code? Here is where the choice
becomes more difficult.
noweb when teamed with LaTeX formats, cross references and
indexes all your code chunks. I don't think DocBook does
that as its more just like LaTeX  - a markup language. 
(noweb could be rewritten to work with DocBook though, now
that would be nice).

So we need to find out what Rodos wants to document (then
can we have a DocBook/LaTeX flame war?). 

Mike

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Lake
University of Technology, Sydney
Email: mailto:Mike.Lake@nospam.uts.edu.au Ph: 02 9514 1724 Fx: 02
9514 1628 
URL: http://www.science.uts.edu.au/~michael-lake/
Linux enthusiast, active caver and interested in anything
technical.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux Users Group Mailing List - http://www.slug.org.au
To unsubscribe send email to slug-request@nospam.slug.org.au with
unsubscribe in the text