tlug: SGML

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

Andrew S. Howell writes:
 > 
 > I'm trying to get my feet wet in SGML, but, to continue a bad
 > metaphor, I'm up to my knees in muck with definitions what it is, and
 > how versatile it is, without any clear idea how to make use of it. I
 > think what I want is a sample DTD that will get me started.
 > 
 > I want to put together some simple manuals, and would like to avoid
 > M$. From what I understand SGML it is a good way to go in that its A)
 > easy to put under source code control, B) easy to convert from SGML to
 > various other formats.

I'm running late, so this is a bit hasty, but ...

To get the feel of working with SGML, you might want to start out with 
the sgml-tools package. It gives you a set of conversion tools, and
the linuxdoc DTD, which is suitable for simple manuals ... actually
the LDP's HOWTOs are all done with linuxdoc.

>From what I've seen (and in fact I think the LinuxDoc people say this
themselves) LinuxDoc is not really a "good" DTD -- i.e., it's fairly
hacked-up to do certain things rather well, but may not be a great
model to follow.

The DocBook DTD is widely used and often recommended as a basis for
deriving your own DTDs. However, it's quite complex and maybe
shouldn't be your very first experience w/ SGML ... unless you're very 
brave. You can get it from ... gotta check the bookmark here
... http://www.ora.com/davenport/ . 

Let's see ... I suppose you are aware of PSGML? It's the Emacs package 
for SGML editing ... works great, is packaged w/ the XEmacs
distribution, but you have to install it yourself on FSF Emacs.

As far as conversion to other formats, hmmm... organizations w/ deep
pockets buy expensive SGML systems that take care of everything for
them w/out much effort, but good free tools are not all that abundant, 
I think (though I'm still just a beginner). I think CoST, a TCL-based
formatting program, is well-regarded; there are a couple of decent
Perl-based things which I haven't tried. I've been learning DSSSL,
which is a Scheme-based stylesheet language; as a *standard* it seems
to be totally cool, but it's not very well implemented yet. Jade is
the most widely-used and apparently best free DSSSL engine (see
http://www.jclark.com/ ) .

For more info than you can absorb in 5 years, check out the SGML/XML home
page at http://www.sil.org/sgml/sgml.html. It's kinda overwhelming,
but has some pointers to a few good tutorials.

Hope this helps.

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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