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<!--X-Subject: Re: Outline for Author's Guide -->
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<title>Re: Outline for Author's Guide</title>
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<h1>Re: Outline for Author's Guide</h1>
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<li><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-docbook@lists.debian.org">ldp-docbook@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Subject</em>: Re: Outline for Author's Guide</li>
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<li><em>From</em>: Kendall Clark <<A HREF="mailto:kclark@ntlug.org">kclark@ntlug.org</A>></li>
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<li><em>Date</em>: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 20:58:25 -0600 (CST)</li>
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<li><em>In-reply-to</em>: <<a href="msg00011.html">Pine.LNX.4.10.9912051030010.21594-100000@jd.linuxports.com</a>></li>
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<li><em>References</em>: <<a href="msg00010.html">14411.6824.457038.770755@cmpu.net</a>><<a href="msg00011.html">Pine.LNX.4.10.9912051030010.21594-100000@jd.linuxports.com</a>></li>
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<li><em>Reply-to</em>: <A HREF="mailto:kclark@ntlug.org">kclark@ntlug.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Resent-cc</em>: recipient list not shown: ;</li>
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<li><em>Resent-date</em>: 6 Dec 1999 02:58:35 -0000</li>
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<li><em>Resent-from</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-docbook@lists.debian.org">ldp-docbook@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Resent-message-id</em>: <PuY5KC.A.9H.bZyS4@murphy></li>
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<li><em>Resent-sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-docbook-request@lists.debian.org">ldp-docbook-request@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<pre>
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>>>>> "Poet/Joshua" == Poet/Joshua D Drake <poet@linuxports.com> writes:
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Poet/Joshua> Hello, It seems to me that this a little more
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Poet/Joshua> complicated than it needs to be. Yes DocBook is a
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Poet/Joshua> large beast but it is not uncontrollable. A quick FAQ
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Poet/Joshua> on what is good practice and not good practice should
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Poet/Joshua> suffice.
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I don't agree.
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But in any event, the burden is on you to say precisely *which* things
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in the outline don't need to be addressed. It's well and good to say
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"the outline is too complicated," but unless that's accompanied by
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*specific* recommendations for what doesn't need to be addressed, then
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it's not very helpful.
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I've done enough DocBook with teams of 10 to 20
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authors/editors/content-personnel to know that a "quick FAQ" will not
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suffice. Scale that to the number of LDP authors, and then scale it
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again to account for the geographic/communication effects, and it's
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not hard to see that w/out some pretty specific guidance, we're going
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to get a mess.
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Finally, many of the issues--heck, maybe *most* of the issues--in the
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outline are *not* DB-specific but SGML-specific. That is, the whole
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issue of entity management has to be faced no matter what SGML DTD we
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might use, DB or otherwise.
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Poet/Joshua> I agree with Kendall in regards to the tools. No we
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Poet/Joshua> don't have the ability to just type sgmltools html
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Poet/Joshua> index.sgml and get what we want BUT we can type jade
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Poet/Joshua> <arguments> <stylesheet> index.sgml and get what we
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Poet/Joshua> want. Heck, if we stick with specific style sheets
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Poet/Joshua> we should be fine. Just state in the FAQ that we
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Poet/Joshua> accept these version of the style sheets and these
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Poet/Joshua> "features".
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That's confused, I'm afraid. LDP accepts SGML *source* and is
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responsible for applying a transformation engine to that source to
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produce output.
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That is to say, the AG doesn't need to address that part of the
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transformation stage *at all*, as I said in my post. LDP authors
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should think of the "backend" -- i.e., what happens to their source
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once they submit it -- as a black box. What versions of stylesheets
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are getting used are not important at all to *authors*.
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What is crucially important to them is that we address transformation
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*expectations*, that is, what output looks like and what authors can
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expect their source to get turned into. (But that's a separate issue
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from the specific tools the backend uses to get that output. Think OOP
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data-hiding and API boundaries for a fairly good analog.)
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This is important so that authors will know which precise DB
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constructions they want to use *from among a range of options* to get
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the desired effect. Yes, separating content from presentation is
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essential to an SGML project; but individual authors are still going
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to be asking questions like, 'how do I get this bold or italic?'. Even
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if we want to help them think about their documents in more semantic,
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and less presentational terms, we still have to handle the transition
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cases.
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Concrete example: I owe Tim an update of the User Group HOWTO. I have
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a full DB kit installed here, but I've got pretty old version of
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Norm's stylesheets, and I don't have the newest Jade either. But
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that's ok, because I can get some HTML output to test that my document
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is coming out reasonably. Now, when I send the source file toTim, I
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don't have to know, nor do I even care, what his SGML/DB setup is
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like. I do need to know, however, if my expectations about
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transformation are significantly different from what his kit is going
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to produce. Do I need to know which version of Jade or the DSSSL
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stylesheets or anything else he's using? No.
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And that's a *good thing*. It's part of the magic of SGML. It's
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document interchange and it's appropriate.
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Now, I'm fairly SGML literate so if I don't care about the details of
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the LDP backend, I think it's safe to say that most LDP authors won't
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care either.
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Best,
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<Kendall/>
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--
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</pre>
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<ul><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>:
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<ul>
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<li><strong><a name="00014" href="msg00014.html">Re: Outline for Author's Guide</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> "Edward C. Bailey" <ed@redhat.com></li></ul></li>
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</ul></li></ul>
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<ul><li><strong>References</strong>:
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<ul>
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<li><strong><a name="00010" href="msg00010.html">Re: Outline for Author's Guide</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> Kendall Clark <kclark@ntlug.org></li></ul></li>
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<li><strong><a name="00011" href="msg00011.html">Re: Outline for Author's Guide</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> "Poet/Joshua D. Drake" <poet@linuxports.com></li></ul></li>
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</ul></li></ul>
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