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LDP Author Guide
Jorge Godoy
[http://www.conectiva.com] Conectiva S.A.
Publishing Department
<godoy@metalab.unc.edu>
Emma Jane Hogbin
<emmajane@xtrinsic.com>
Mark F. Komarinski
<mkomarinski@wayga.org>
David C. Merrill
david -AT- lupercalia.net
2005-03-04
Revision History
Revision 4.84.74.64.54.44.34.24.1
2006-04-202005-03-042005-01-232004-07-142004-04-192004-04-042004-04-0
22004-01-27 Revised by: MGejhejhejhejhejhejhejh
Added notes about prefered submission formats, corrected links,
packaged templates.Typo fixed in sample DocBook markup. Added new
web-based authoring tool and information on LaTeX to DocBook
conversions.Typos fixed in xmlto notes and book template. Copied
information about DocBook-capable word processing tools into the
"Converting Documents to DocBook XML" Appendix; added new XML
editors; and information about tools to convert other formats to
DocBook XML.Updated information regarding CVS accounts and connecting
to the CVS server.Added editor credit requirements to the Using
DocBook section. Updated the submission procedure. New documents can
now only be added by one of the Review Coordinators after the
successful completion of each of the required reviews.Removed the
section Contributing to The LDP (replaced by Summary of The LDP
Process).Added references for LyX to DocBook conversions in the
bibliography.Updated the license requirements and added them to the
table of contents (moved them out of the sub-section).
This guide describes the process of submitting and publishing a
document with The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP). It includes
information about the tools, toolchains and formats used by TLDP. The
document's primary audience is new TLDP authors, but it also contains
information for seasoned documentation authors.
________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. About this Guide
1.1. About this Guide
1.2. About The LDP
1.3. Feedback
1.4. Copyrights and Trademarks
1.5. Acknowledgments and Thanks
1.6. Document Conventions
2. Authoring TLDP Documents: An Introduction
2.1. Summary of The LDP Process
2.2. Mailing Lists
3. Writing Your Proposal
3.1. Choosing a Subject
3.2. Scope of Your Document
3.3. Unmaintained and Out-of-date Documents
3.4. Developing an Outline
3.5. Research
4. Write
4.1. Writing the Text
4.2. Edit and Proofread the Text
4.3. Tools for Writing, Editing and Maintaining your Document
5. Markup
5.1. Markup: A General Overview
5.2. DocBook: What it is and why we use it
5.3. XML and SGML: Why we use XML
5.4. Markup Languages Accepted by TLDP
6. Distributing Your Documentation
6.1. Before Distributing Your Documentation
6.2. Licensing and Copyright
6.3. Acknowledgments
6.4. TLDP Review Process
6.5. Submission to LDP for publication
7. Maintenance
7.1. Maintaining Your Document
7.2. Fixing Errors
References
A. Templates
A.1. Document Templates
A.2. Style Sheets
A.3. GNU Free Documentation License
B. System Setup: Editors, Validation and Transformations
B.1. Tools for your operating system
B.2. Editing tools
B.3. Validation
B.4. Transformations
B.5. DocBook DTD
B.6. Formatting Documents
C. Concurrent Version System (CVS)
C.1. Getting a CVS account
C.2. Using CVS
C.3. CVS Resources
D. DocBook: Sample Markup
D.1. General Tips and Tricks
D.2. <section> and <sectN>: what's the difference?
D.3. Command Prompts
D.4. Encoding Indexes
D.5. Inserting Pictures
D.6. Markup for Metadata
D.7. Bibliographies
D.8. Entities (shortcuts, text macros and re-usable text)
D.9. Customizing your HTML files
E. Converting Documents to DocBook XML
E.1. Text to DocBook
E.2. OpenOffice.org to DocBook
E.3. Microsoft Word to DocBook
E.4. LaTeX to DocBook
E.5. LyX to DocBook
E.6. DocBook to DocBook Transformations
Glossary
F. GNU Free Documentation License
F.1. 0. PREAMBLE
F.2. 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
F.3. 2. VERBATIM COPYING
F.4. 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
F.5. 4. MODIFICATIONS
F.6. 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
F.7. 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
F.8. 7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
F.9. 8. TRANSLATION
F.10. 9. TERMINATION
F.11. 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
F.12. Addendum
List of Tables
D-1. Useful markup
List of Figures
B-1. epcEdit screen shot
B-2. nedit screen shot
B-3. Adding shell commands to nedit
B-4. nsgmls output on success
List of Examples
B-1. Setting the SGML_CATALOG_FILES and XML_CATALOG_FILES
Environmental Variables
B-2. Example of an SGML catalog
B-3. Sample XML Catalog file
B-4. Debugging example using xmllint
B-5. "Installing" DSSSL style sheets
B-6. Example creating HTML output
B-7. "Installing" DocBook Document Type Definitions
B-8. Style sheet to insert summaries in articles
B-9. Configuring an external entity to include the index
D-1. Command Prompt with programlisting
D-2. Command Prompt with screen
D-3. Code for the generation of an index
D-4. Use of the attribute zone
D-5. Usage of values startofrange and endofrange on the
attributeclass
D-6. Inserting a picture
D-7. Using <imageobject>
D-8. Other Credit
D-9. Editor
D-10. Sample Meta Data
D-11. A Bibliography
D-12. Adding Entities
D-13. Use of parameter entities
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 1. About this Guide
1.1. About this Guide
This document was started on Aug 26, 1999 by Mark F. Komarinski after
two day's worth of frustration getting tools to work. If even one LDP
author is helped by this, then I did my job.
Version 4 of this document was released in early 2004 by Emma Jane
Hogbin. A complete overhaul of the document was done to separate the
authoring HOWTOs from the technical HOWTOs. The review took
approximately eight months.
The newest version of this document can be found at the LDP homepage
[http://www.tldp.org/] http://www.tldp.org. The original DocBook,
HTML, and other formats can be found there.
There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement that do not
require the ability to produce software. One such way is to write
documentation. The availability of easy-to-understand, technically
accurate documentation can make a world of difference to someone who
is struggling with Linux software. This Guide is designed to help you
research and write a HOWTO which can be submitted to the LDP. The
appendices also include sample templates, markup tips and information
on how to transform your document from DocBook to another format
(such as HTML) for easier proofreading.
________________________________________________________________
1.2. About The LDP
The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) was started to provide new
users a way of quickly getting information about a particular
subject. It not only contains a series of books on administration,
networking, and programming, but also has a large number of smaller
works on individual subjects, written by those who have used it. If
you want to find out about printing, you get the Printing HOWTO. If
you want to do find out if your Ethernet card works with Linux, grab
the Ethernet HOWTO, and so on.
The LDP provides documents to the world in a variety of convenient
formats and also accepts submissions in a number of formats. The
current standard for storing the source documentation is a format
known as DocBook, see Section 5.2.
The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is working on developing free,
high-quality documentation for the GNU/Linux operating system. The
overall goal of the LDP is to collaborate in all of the issues of
Linux documentation. This includes the creation of "HOWTOs" and
"Guides". We hope to establish a system of documentation for Linux
that will be easy to use and search. This includes the integration of
the manual pages, info docs, HOWTOs, and other documents.
--LDP Manifesto located at [http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html]
http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html
The human readable version goes more like this: The LDP consists of a
large group of volunteers who are working on documentation about
Linux and the programs which run on the Linux kernel. These documents
exist primarily as shorter HOWTOs and longer Guides. Both are
available from [http://www.tldp.org/] http://www.tldp.org/. This
Guide focuses primarily on how to write your own HOWTOs for
submission to the LDP.
________________________________________________________________
1.3. Feedback
Send feedback to <discuss@en.tldp.org>. Please reference the title of
this document in your email. Please note: you must
[http://tldp.org/mailinfo.html#maillists] be subscribed in order to
send email to the list.
________________________________________________________________
1.4. Copyrights and Trademarks
Copyright 1999-2002 Mark F. Komarinski, David C. Merrill, Jorge Godoy
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the appendix entitled
"GNU Free Documentation License."
________________________________________________________________
1.5. Acknowledgments and Thanks
1.5.1. Version 1 - Version 3
Thanks to everyone that gave comments as I was writing this. This
includes David Lawyer, Deb Richardson, Daniel Barlow, Greg Ferguson,
Mark Craig and other members of the <discuss@en.tldp.org> list. Some
sections I got from the [http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/] HOWTO Index and
the sgmltools documentation. The sections on network access to CVS
was partially written by Sergiusz Pawlowicz (<ser@metalab.unc.edu>).
Sections on DocBook were written by Jorge Godoy
(<godoy@conectiva.com>). A great deal of thanks to both of them for
their help.
________________________________________________________________
1.5.2. Version 4
Thanks to Tabatha Marshall and Machtelt Garrels (Tille) for making
sure I actually finished the document. Thanks to my reviewers:
Charles Curley, Martin Brown and Tille; and to Saqib Ali for his
on-line transformation and validation tools. I have also incorporated
a number of useful emails from the LDP mailing lists. The original
authors are credited within the document. Special personal thank yous
are extended to Steve Champeon for getting me interested in markup
languages and for being a wonderful mentor; and to my partner, Graig
Kent, for being outrageously supportive. [EJH]
________________________________________________________________
1.6. Document Conventions
This document uses the following conventions[1]:
Descriptions Appearance
Information requiring special attention
Warning
This is a warning.
Caution
Caution
This cautions the reader.
Hint
Tip
This is a hint.
Notes
Note
This is a note.
File Names file.extension
Directory Names directory
Commands to be typed command
Applications Names application
Prompt of users command under bash shell bash$
Prompt of root users command under bash shell bash#
Prompt of user command under tcsh shell tcsh$
Environment Variables VARIABLE
Emphasized word word
Quoted text "quote"
Code Example
<para>Beginning and end of paragraph</para>
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2. Authoring TLDP Documents: An Introduction
2.1. Summary of The LDP Process
The following section outlines the process of creating and/or
maintaining a document for the Linux Documentation Project. This
section includes all steps--some of which may not be relevant to your
specific document.
1. Join the discuss mailing list. Authors who are interested in
taking over the maintenance of someone else's document should
also join this list. This is to make sure the LDP knows who is
working on what documentation.
If you have not yet written your documentation, please review our
documents ([http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html]
current, [http://tldp.org/authors/unmaint.html] unmaintained and
[] in progress) and submit a proposal to the list. Your proposal
should include reasons why your document will be different than
those already in the collection; or identify a subject that is
currently missing from our documentation. For more information
about writing proposals, please read Chapter 3.
For more information about the mailing lists, please read Section
2.2 or visit [http://lists.tldp.org] lists.tldp.org to subscribe.
If your document has already been written, please submit a copy
to the discuss list (or include the URL of where it can be
found).
2. Write your document. If your document has not yet been written,
please be sure to email the discuss list before you start
writing. You may choose whatever format you feel most comfortable
in to write your document. If it is not one of the formats
accepted by the LDP a volunteer will convert it for you. For more
information on writing technical documentation, please read
Chapter 4.
3. If you are adding your own markup, you may also want to join the
docbook mailing list. For more information about the LDP DocBook
list please read Section 2.2. If you would like to start with a
template, you may find the templates in Appendix A useful. There
is also a general introduction to markup in Chapter 5 and a
section full of examples at Appendix D.
4. Submit your document for technical, language and metadata
reviews. Do this by emailing your document to
<submit@en.tldp.org>. In the subject line be sure give the title
of the document. In the body of the email say that you are ready
for the review process. Outline any additional reviews your
document may have already received. You should be assigned a
reviewer within the week. The reviews may take an additional week
each. For more information about this process, please read
Chapter 6.
If your document is not already in DocBook or LinuxDoc format, a
reviewer will convert it for you.
5. Once your document has been through each of the reviews a Review
Coordinator will add it to the CVS, update the version number to
1.0 and have the document published on the public Web site. For
more information about your final submission to the LDP, please
read Section 6.5.
Tip If you don't submit your document in DocBook format
The volunteer adding markup to your document may choose any accepted
markup language. The Author Guide, however, will refer only to
DocBook. If you are submitting plain text or some other format,
please let the LDP know if you prefer to maintain your document in
either LinuxDoc or DocBook, which are the accepted formats for
end-results.
________________________________________________________________
2.2. Mailing Lists
You can subscribe to the following mailing lists:
* First is <discuss@en.tldp.org>, which is the main discussion
group of the LDP.
* Another is the <docbook@en.tldp.org> list, which is for questions
about DocBook use including markup and transformations. If you
run into trouble with a particular markup tag, you can send your
question here for answers.
You can subscribe to either list by sending a request message to
either <discuss-subscribe@en.tldp.org> or
<docbook-subscribe@en.tldp.org>. The subject of your message should
read "subscribe" (no quotes). To remove yourself from the list, send
an E-mail with the subject of "unsubscribe" to
<discuss-unsubscribe@en.tldp.org> or
<docbook-unsubscribe@en.tldp.org>.
If you are interested in DocBook beyond the simple markup of your LDP
document, you may want to consider joining one of the
[http://www.oasis-open.org/] OASIS DocBook mailing lists. Please see
[http://docbook.org/mailinglist/index.html]
http://docbook.org/mailinglist/index.html for more information.
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 3. Writing Your Proposal
3.1. Choosing a Subject
It is likely that if you are reading the Author Guide, you already
have a subject in mind. The idea may have come from your own
frustrations in trying to get something to work; or maybe you are
already writing or have written documentation for other purposes and
you want to submit it to the LDP. For example, if you posted a
question to a mailing list and it took many posts to resolve the
problem -- that might be an incentive to write documentation.
Regardless of how you picked your subject, it is important that the
LDP community understand why your documentation should be included in
its collection. If someone has requested documentation, or you worked
with a mailing list to resolve a problem you should include the
details in your proposal to the LDP discuss mailing list. It may help
others to understand the need for your specific document.
________________________________________________________________
3.2. Scope of Your Document
Now that you've got a subject, you will need to decide the scope of
the document. The scope or subject area should be:
1. Clearly defined. Define the boundaries of your subject area
before you begin. Do not repeat information that is in another
HOWTO and do not leave gaps of information between your HOWTO and
someone else's HOWTO.
2. Not too broad, and not too narrow. If you try to cover too much
information you may sacrifice depth. It is better to cover a
small subject area in detail than to cover a large subject area
poorly. Linux tools are known for doing exactly one thing and
doing that one thing well. Similarly, your HOWTO should cover one
subject and cover it well.
If the scope of your proposed document is very narrow, it might
be better to include your information as part of another HOWTO.
This makes it easier for readers to find the HOWTO they need.
Search the LDP repository for topics which relate to your
document. If you find a document which is a good match, email the
author and ask them if they would like to include your
contribution.
3. Undocumented. Before documenting a particular subject, always do
a web search (and specifically a search within the LDP documents)
to see if your topic is already covered in another document. If
it is, refer to the other document instead of duplicating the
information within your own document. You may wish to include a
brief summary of information that can be found in other
documents.
If the HOWTO already in place is insufficient or needs updating,
contact the author and offer to help. See also Section 3.3 for
taking over old or unmaintained documents.
Most authors appreciate any help offered. Additionally, sending
comments and remarks to the author is usually regarded both as a
reassurance and a reward: to the author, feedback is the ultimate
proof that writing the documentation was not a pointless effort.
4. Pre-approved by the LDP. Before you proceed with your HOWTO, post
to the discuss list and get some feedback from other LDP
volunteers. Checking with the list before you begin can save you
headaches later.
Note Stay in touch!
Joining the discuss list and following it regularly, even if you
never post, is a good way to stay current on the activities, needs
and policies of the LDP.
________________________________________________________________
3.2.1. Documentation Templates
After you've decided the scope of your document you should start to
consider the type of document that you will write. There are a number
of different LDP documentation templates: Guides, HOWTOs, man pages
and FAQs. Rahul Sundaram describes their scope in the Linux
Documentation Project (LDP) FAQ. Here is a brief overview of what
they are with pointers on how you can get started writing your own:
* Guides. A guide covers a broad subject and is quite long. The
Author Guide (this document) is a guide. Other guides include:
Introduction to Linux: A hands on guide, The Linux Kernel Module
Programming Guide, etc. A full list of guides is available from:
Linux Project Documentation Guides. Guides use the "book"
templates located in Appendix A.
* HOWTOs. A HOWTO is typically a set of instructions that outlines,
step-by-step, how a specific task is accomplished. Examples of
HOWTOs are: [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/CDROM-HOWTO/index.html]
CDROM-HOWTO [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Module-HOWTO/index.html]
Module-HOWTO. A full list of HOWTOs is available from: Single
List of HOWTOs (warning: it's a BIG page). HOWTOs typically use
the "article" template and are output to multiple HTML pages by
default. Templates are available in Appendix A.
* man pages. man (Manual) pages are the standard form of help
available for many linux applications and utilities. They can be
viewed by typing man applicationname at a prompt. A full list of
man pages is available from: [http://tldp.org/docs.html#man]
Linux Man Pages. Since man pages are bundled with software there
is no LDP template at this time.
* FAQs. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are a list of questions
and answers to help prevent new users from asking the same
questions over and over again. A full list of FAQs is available
from: Linux Documentation Project FAQs. FAQs typically use the
"article" template with some specific DocBook elements to form
the Question/Answer structure. You can find a template for
writing a FAQ in Appendix A.
Note mini-HOWTOs and HOWTOs
The LDP no longer distinguishes between HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs. All
previously written mini-HOWTOs have been included in longer HOWTOs.
All new documents must be at least HOWTO in length. This means the
documents should cover a bigger subject area rather than a small one.
If your document is very small you may wish to submit it for
inclusion in another, larger HOWTO that already exists. If you're not
sure what size your document is, email the discuss list and ask for
feedback.
________________________________________________________________
3.3. Unmaintained and Out-of-date Documents
If you wish to become the "owner" for an unmaintained document there
are several steps you must go through.
* Contact the author. Make sure the author no longer wishes to
maintain the document in question. Note that the E-mail address
shown may no longer be valid. In that case, try a
[http://google.com] search for the author. If the original author
of a document cannot be found after a "good-faith" effort, let us
know (<discuss@en.tldp.org>--subscription required).
* Determine if a more up-to-date copy of the document exists,
outside of what is available on the LDP. If so, try to secure a
copy for yourself to work on.
* Inform the LDP which document you would like to maintain, so that
we can track who is working on what and prevent duplication of
effort. We also suggest that you join the LDP general discussion
list (<discuss@en.tldp.org>). This step is also required for new
documents.
* Submit the document to the LDP with any intended modifications.
Make sure to continue to reference the original author somewhere
within the document (Credits, Revision History, etc.). Once the
document is re-submitted, we will remove the entry from the list
of unmaintained documents.
Note Feedback wanted
Some of unmaintained documents may be outdated, or the content may be
covered in another (actively maintained) HOWTO. If that is the
situation, contact us (preferably on the discuss mailing list) and
let us know.
________________________________________________________________
3.4. Developing an Outline
Before you actually begin writing, prepare an outline. An outline
will help you to get a clear picture of the subject matter and allow
you to concentrate on one small part of the HOWTO at a time.
Unless your HOWTO is exceptionally small, your outline will probably
be multilevel. When developing a multilevel outline, the top level
should contain general subject areas, and sub-headings should be more
detailed and specific. Look at each level of your outline
independently, and make sure it covers all key areas of the subject
matter. Sub-headings should cover all key areas of the heading under
which they fall.
Each item in your outline should follow the item before it, and lead
into the item that comes next. For example, a HOWTO about a
particular program shouldn't have a section on configuration before
one on installation.
You may choose to use the following outline for a HOWTO about using a
specific program:
* development history
* where to download the software from
* how to install the software
* how to configure the software
* how to use the software
You may find it helpful to try a little "card sorting" at this stage
of the writing process. Write all of your mini subject areas onto
pieces of paper. Now sort these pieces of paper into main headings
and their sub-sections. It may help to shuffle the slips of paper
before you start. This will help to give you a fresh set of eyes
while working.
When you are comfortable with your outline, look it over once more,
with a critical eye. Have you covered every relevant topic in
sufficient detail? Have you not wandered beyond the scope of the
document? It is a good idea to show your outline to others (including
The LDP discuss list) to get some feedback. Remember: it is much
easier to reorganize your document at the outline stage than doing
this after writing it.
Tip Writing a HOWTO made easy
For help writing your HOWTO outline, and getting a head start on the
markup of your document, check out The LDP HOWTO Generator. Note that
this is for generating HOWTOs. Templates for FAQs and Guides are
available in Appendix A.
Note You're not alone
You might have noticed a theme developing here. Just like Free
software, Free documentation is best when you "release early, release
often." The discuss list includes many experienced LDP authors, and
you would be wise to seek their advice when making decisions about
your contribution.
________________________________________________________________
3.5. Research
While you are working on your outline you will most likely research
your topic--especially to confirm the document you are about to write
does not yet exist! Here are a few pointers that will keep you from
pulling out your hair later:
* Compile your resources as you research. It is almost guaranteed
you will not remember where to find a critical piece of
information when you need it most. It will help to bookmark
important (and even not so important) pages as you go. Make sure
the bookmark's title reflects why the page is important to you.
If there are multiple key ideas in one page, you may want to
bookmark the same page with different titles.
* Assume your most important resource will disappear. The dreaded
"Error 404: Page not found". Even if you have bookmarked a page
it may not be there when you return to it. If a page contains a
really critical piece of information: make a copy. You may do
this by creating a text file with the title of the document, the
author's name, the page's URL and the text of the page into a
text file on your computer. You might also choose to "print" the
file to a PDF (save as or convert to PDF format will capture the
original URL on the page if you're using a smart browser).
* Start your "Resources" page now. As you find pages of interest
add them to a Resources document. You may do this by exporting
your bookmarks or by keeping a separate text file with the
Resources sorted by sub-category. A little effort now will save
you a lot of time later.
There is more information about the DocBook markup of
bibliographies in Section D.7.
* Write down subject areas as you go. If you are card sorting you
may find it particularly useful to write topic cards as you find
pages that cover that specific topic. At the top of the card
write the subject area. In the main area of the card write a few
notes about what you might cover under this topic--include the
titles of pages that contain important information. If a
sub-topic gets too big you may want to divide it into multiple
cards.
* Separate generic information from version-specific information. A
new version of the software that you describe might be released
the day after you release your document. Other things, like where
to download the software, won't change. Alternatively, you may
choose to document old problems with specific software as a way
of encouraging readers to upgrade to the latest version
available: "Version X of the software is known for a specific
bug. The bug was fixed as of Version Y."
* Save all related emails. People will often have interesting
insight into the problem that you are writing about. Any
questions that are asked about your topic should be addressed in
the final document. If you are writing about software make sure
to ask people what system they are using. Add information in your
document about which system configurations your instructions have
been tested on. (Having lots of friends with moderately different
configurations can be very beneficial!) All of these personal
experiences can add greatly to your final documentation.
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 4. Write
4.1. Writing the Text
By now you should have organized your document; you collected bits of
raw information and inserted them into the outline. Your next
challenge is to massage all of the raw data you've collected into a
readable, entertaining and understandable whole. If you are working
from an existing document make sure any new pieces of information are
in the best possible places.
It has taken quite a bit of work to get to the point where you can
actually start writing, hasn't it? Well, the hard work begins to pay
off for you now. At this stage, you can begin to really use your
imagination and creativity to communicate this heap of information.
Don't be too clever though! Your readers are already struggling with
new concepts--do not make them struggle to understand your language
as well.
There are a number of classic guides to writing--many of which are
available on-line. Their language will seem old, but the messages are
still valuable to authors today. These are listed in . Also listed in
the resources section are a variety of sites that have information
specific to technical writing.
The Author Guide wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Plain
Language movement. Although directed at simplifying government
documents, Writing user-friendly documents is quite useful. It
includes before and after writing samples. There's also a PlainTrain
writing tutorial.
And any document that discusses writing for the web wouldn't be
complete without a nod toward [http://www.useit.com] useit.com. The
following articles may be of specific interest:
* [http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/] Writing for the Web
* [http://useit.com/alertbox/20030811.html] Information pollution
* [http://useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html] Be Succinct! (Writing for
the Web)
There are many, many resources for writing web documents--a quick web
search for "web writing" will find lots of resources. Don't get too
distracted, though: the ultimate goal is to write, not to read about
writing!
________________________________________________________________
4.1.1. Writing Style and Style Guides
There are a number of industry style guides which define how language
should be used in documents. A common example for American English is
the Chicago Manual of Style. It defines things like: whether a period
(.) should be inside or outside of "quotes"; and the format for
citing another document. A style guide helps to keep documents
consistent--most corporations will follow a style guide to format
media releases and other promotional material. Style guides mays also
define how words should be spelled (is it color or colour?).
The LDP does not require a specific style guide; however, you should
use a consistent style throughout your document. Your document should
be spell checked for a single language (e.g. American English vs.
British English). The [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/]
Reviewer's HOWTO currently lists a number of conventions for LDP
documents and it is as close as it gets to an official LDP Style
Guide.
Tip A personal glossary
It helps to make a list of terms that you were new to you when you
first started researching and writing your document. You can refer to
this list while writing the text. You may also want to include it as
a glossary in your final document.
You can save yourself a lot of time in the editing phase if you
decide how you will write your document ahead of time. If you are
taking over someone else's document you may need to either: modify
your own style to fit the current document; or edit the document so
that it melds with the style you would like to use from now on.
From a writing style perspective, use of the first-person in a HOWTO
adds to its charm--an attribute most other documentation sorely
lacks. Don't be afraid to speak for yourself--use the word "I" to
describe your personal experiences and opinions.
________________________________________________________________
4.1.2. On-line Writing Resources
In the section, you will find a list of resources that cover the
subject better than this guide could hope to. Consult them, and
follow their advice.
________________________________________________________________
4.2. Edit and Proofread the Text
Once you've written the text of your HOWTO, it is time to polish and
refine it. Good editing can make the difference between a good HOWTO
and a great one.
One of the goals of editing is to remove [extraneous] material that
has crept its way into your document. You should go through your
HOWTO carefully, and ruthlessly delete anything that does not
contribute to the reader's understanding of the subject matter. It is
natural for writers to go off on tangents while in the process of
writing. Now is the time to correct that. It often helps to leave a
bit of time between when you write a document and when you edit it.
Make sure that the content of every section matches the title
precisely. It's possible that your original subject heading is no
longer relevant. If you've strayed from your original heading it
could mean one of the following: the original title was poorly
worded, the new material should actually go in a different section,
or the new material is not really necessary for your document. If you
need to change a title, check to see if the original subject heading
is still important. If it is, make sure that topic is covered
somewhere else in the document.
When editing and proofing your work, check for obvious mistakes, such
as spelling errors and typos. You should also check for deeper, but
less obvious errors as well, such as "holes" in the information. If
you are creating a set of instructions it may help to test them on a
new machine. Sometimes there are packages that need to be installed
which you've forgotten to mention in your documentation, for
instance.
When you are completely satisfied with the quality and accuracy of
your work, forward it to someone else for third-party proofing. You
will be too close to the work to see fundamental flaws. Have others
test the instructions as well. Make sure they follow exactly what you
have written. Ask anyone who tests your documentation to make
specific notes in any places where they didn't follow your
instructions (and the reason why they didn't follow them). For
example: "I skipped step 2 because I already have the required
packages installed."
In a sense, editing is like code review in software development.
Having a programmer review their own code doesn't make much sense,
and neither does having a writer edit their own document. Recruit a
friend, or write the discuss list to find a volunteer to proofread
before submitting your document. You may also want to submit your
document to a mailing list that is relevant to your document's topic.
List members should be able to help check the facts, clarity of your
instructions and language of the document.
Note Native speaker?
If you are writing in a language in which you are not fluent, find an
editor who is. Technical documentation, more than any other type of
writing, must use extremely precise grammar and vocabulary. Misuse of
language makes your document less valuable.
________________________________________________________________
4.3. Tools for Writing, Editing and Maintaining your Document
Caution Reminder
You do not need to submit your initial document to the LDP in
anything more than plain text! Other open submission formats are
accepted as well, for instance OpenOffice documents, RTF files or
HTML. The LDP volunteers will convert your document to DocBook for
you. Once it has been converted you will need to maintain your
document in DocBook format, but that should be obvious.
________________________________________________________________
4.3.1. Editing Tools
You may use any word processing or text editing tool to write your
initial document. When you get to the markup stage you may want to
use a text editor which recognizes DocBook files. At a minimum a
program which adds syntax highlighting to your markup will make life
a lot easier. For a description of editors which can handle DocBook
files please skip to Section B.2.
________________________________________________________________
4.3.2. Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
The LDP provides optional CVS access to its authors. This enables
collaborative writing and has the following positive effects:
1. CVS will keep an off-site backup of your documents. In the event
that you hand over a document to another author, they can just
retrieve the document from CVS and continue on. In the event you
need to go back to a previous version of a document, you can
retrieve it as well.
2. However difficult from an organizational point of view, it's
great to have multiple people working on the same document. CVS
enables you to do this. You can have CVS tell you what changes
were made by another author while you were editing your copy, and
integrate those changes.
3. CVS keeps a log of what changes were made. These logs (and a date
stamp) can be placed automatically inside your documents when
they are published.
4. CVS can be combined with scripts to automatically update the LDP
web site with new documentation as it's written and submitted.
This is not in place yet, but it is a goal. Currently, CVS
updates signal the HOWTO coordinator to update the LDP web page,
meaning that if you use CVS, you're not required to e-mail your
XML code. (Although you do still need to send the submit list an
email when you are ready for your document to be published,
because the whole publishing process has not been fully automated
yet.)
Note Access to our CVS repository
Only authors with at least three submissions get access to our CVS,
see Appendix C.
For more information on how to use CVS to maintain your LDP
documents, please read Appendix C.
________________________________________________________________
4.3.3. Spell Check
Some writing tools will come with their own built-in spell check
tools. This list is only if your application does not have a spell
check option.
Spell Check Software
aspell [http://aspell.sourceforge.net] http://aspell.sourceforge.net
This spell check application can work around XML tags. By
distinguishing between content and markup aspell is able to
check your content and ignore the bits it shouldn't be looking
at. If you are getting spelling errors in your markup tags you
may be using an old version and should upgrade.
The aspell command comes with the aspell package, included on
most Linux distributions. Use the command as follows:
aspell -c file
An interactive user interface allows for fast and easy
correction of errors. Use the --help to read more about aspell
features.
ispell [http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/ispell.html]
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/ispell.html
Similar to aspell, but tries to spell check your markup tags.
If you have a choice, use aspell, if not, ispell is a very
acceptable substitute.
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 5. Markup
5.1. Markup: A General Overview
A markup language is a system for marking or tagging a document to
define the structure of the document. You may add tags to your
document to define which parts of your document are paragraphs,
titles, sections, glossary items (the list goes on!). There are many
markup languages in use today. XHTML and HTML will be familiar to
those who author web documents. The LDP uses a markup language known
as DocBook. Each of these markup languages uses its own "controlled
vocabulary" to describe documents. For example: in XHTML a paragraph
would be marked up with the tagset <p></p> while in DocBook a
paragraph would be marked up with <para></para>. The tagsets are
defined in a quasi dictionary known as a Document Type Definition
(DTD).
Markup languages also follow a set of rules on how a document can be
assembled. The rules are either SGML (Standard Generalized Markup
Language) or XML (eXtensible Markup Language). These rules are
essentially the "grammar" of a document's markup. SGML and XML are
very similiar. XML is a sub-set of SGML, but XML requires more
precise use of the tags when marking up a document. The LDP accepts
both SGML and XML documents, but prefers XML.
There are three components to an XML/SGML document which is read by a
person.
* Content. As a TLDP author it is good to remember that this is the
most important piece. Many authors will write the content first
and add their markup later. Content may include both plain text
and graphics. This is the only part that is required of LDP
authors!
* Markup. To describe the structure of a document a controlled
vocabulary is added on top of the content. It is used to
distinguish different kinds of content: paragraphs, lists,
tables, warnings (and so on). The markup must also conform to
either SGML or XML rules. If you are not comfortable adding
markup to your document, a TLDP volunteer will do it for you.
* Transformation. Finally the document is transformed from DocBook
to PDF, HTML, PostScript for display in digital or paper form.
This transformation is controlled through the Document Style
Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL). The DSSSL tells the
program doing the transformation how to convert the raw markup
into something that a human can read. The LDP uses a series of
scripts to automate these transformations. You are not required
to transform your own documents.
Note Content, markup and transformations
Steve Champeon does a great job of explaining how content, markup
languages, and transformations all fit together in his article The
Secret Life of Markup. Although he is writing from an HTML
perspective, the ideas are relevant and there is an example of
DocBook markup.
________________________________________________________________
5.2. DocBook: What it is and why we use it
According to the official DocBook web site,
DocBook is a general purpose XML and SGML document type particularly
well suited to books and papers about computer hardware and software
(though it is by no means limited to these applications).
--DocBook.org
Tip For the impatient
In the next sections we will be explaining about the theoretical side
of DocBook, its origins, development, advantages and disadvantages.
If you just want the practical side, check out these sections for an
overview of HOWTO DocBook: , Appendix D, and Appendix E from this
guide.
Caution For the beginner
We wish to stress again the fact that any open document format will
be accepted. If you feel more comfortable with plain text, OpenOffice
or HTML, that is fine with us. If you do not look forward to learning
DocBook, LDP volunteerd will convert your document to DocBook XML. To
us, the most important task for our authors is the actual writing,
not the formatting, keep that in mind!
From the point of submission onwards, however, you will have to
maintain your document in this XML format, but that's a piece of
cake. Promised.
Although there are other DTDs used to write documentation, there are
a few reasons not to use them.
* DocBook is the most popular DTD, being used by more than a dozen
major open source projects from GNOME to Python to FreeBSD.
* The tools for DocBook are more developed than others. DocBook
support is included in most Linux distributions, allowing you to
send raw files to be processed at the receiver's end.
* And finally, DocBook has an extensive set of tags (over 300 in
all) which is very useful when you are trying to describe the
content of a document. Fortunately for new authors the majority
of them do not need to be used for simple documentation.
Still not convinced? Eric Raymond has written a DocBook
Demystification HOWTO which may help.
Convinced, but still not comfortable with the thought of working with
DocBook? Give David Lawyer's
[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html]
Howtos-with-LinuxDoc-mini-HOWTO a try.
________________________________________________________________
5.3. XML and SGML: Why we use XML
DocBook comes in a couple of different flavors--including both XML
and SGML formats. This means that you may use either the SGML
grammar/rules when adding markup, or you may use the XML
grammar/rules. Either way you may only use one set of rules
throughout your document, and you must define which one you are using
at the top of your document.
The LDP prefers the XML flavor of DocBook. There are a number of
reasons for this including the following:
1. Libraries for handling XML files are developing at a rapid pace.
These utilities may make it easier for new authoring tools to
become available.
2. Many popular word processing programs are now creating XML
output. While it may not be DocBook XML, this does make it easier
for application writers to either add DocBook XML support, or
provide some method of translating between their format and
DocBook XML.
3. Everyone else is doing it. While this might not be a real reason,
it allows the LDP to keep up-to-date with similar projects.
Tools, procedures, and issues can be worked out in a common
framework.
Still not convinced? Fortunately the LDP does accept a number of
other file formats for input. The list of accepted markup languages
can be found in Section 5.4
________________________________________________________________
5.4. Markup Languages Accepted by TLDP
The LDP stores its documents in the following markup languages:
1. DocBook XML version 4.2 (preferred), 4.1.2
2. DocBook SGML version 4.2, 4.1, or 3.x
3. LinuxDoc SGML
Note New Documents
A new document may be submitted to the LDP in any format. Documents
which are not in DocBook or LinuxDoc will be converted by a
volunteer. The author is responsible for adding markup to any
revisions which are made.
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 6. Distributing Your Documentation
6.1. Before Distributing Your Documentation
Before you distribute your documentation, there are a few more things
that you will need to check and possibly add to your document.
Spelling and Grammar Check
You can read more about helper applications in Section 4.3.3.
You should also check your document for its overall flow and
clarity.
Abstract and Other Meta Data
Add a short paragraph which clearly defines the scope of your
document. For more information on how to add this information
using DocBook please read Section D.6
Acknowledgments
Give credit where credit is due. For more information about
when to give credit, read Section 6.3.
License and Copyright
The LDP distributes documents, however, the author maintains
the copyright on the document. All documents accepted by the
LDP must contain a license and copyright notice. You can read
more about this in Section 6.2.1. You may also want to add a
Disclaimer, but this is optional. More about this in Section
6.2.2.
Validate the Markup
If you are submitting a DocBook or LinuxDoc document, make
sure the markup is valid. Read why in Section B.3.1.
Obtain Peer Reviews
You may want to have others review your document before
submitting it to the LDP. Ask people for a Peer Review and/or
a Technical Accuracy Review. Since not all mailing lists will
respond favorably to attachments, you may wish to set up a
temporary web site which houses your document. Note: this is
absolutely not required.
________________________________________________________________
6.2. Licensing and Copyright
In order for a document to be accepted by the LDP, it must be
licensed and conform to the "LICENSE REQUIREMENTS" section of the LDP
Manifesto located at [http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html]
http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html.
We recommend using the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), one of
the Creative Commons Licenses
([http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sa/1.0/] Share-Alike, or
[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/]
Attribution-Share-Alike), or the LDP license (currently under
review). The full text of the license must be included in your
document, including the title and version of the license you are
using. The LDP will not accept new documents that do not meet
licensing requirements.
Warning Debian-compatible licenses
The Debian package maintainer for LDP documents has divided the LDP
documents into those with a "free" license and those with a
"non-free" license. For a summary of this list, please read
[http://www.debian.org/legal/licenses/byname] Debian License
Summaries. Currently the Artistic License, BSD License and the GNU
General Public License are listed as "free". These licenses will also
be accepted by the LDP. The definition of "non-free" has not been
made transparent. By choosing another license that has any kind of
restriction on redistribution or whether or not the document may be
modified, your document may be put into the "non-free" package
instead of the "free" package. We are working with Debian to clarify
how these decisions are made.
You can get DocBook markups of both the GNU GPL and the GNU FDL from
[http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/licenses.html] the GNOME
Documentation Project. You can then merely include the license in its
entirety in your document. A DocBook-formatted copy of the license is
available in Appendix A.
For more information about open source documentation and licensing,
please check .
________________________________________________________________
6.2.1. Copyright
As an author, you may retain the copyright and add other restrictions
(for example: require approval for any translations or derivative
works). If you are a new maintainer of an already-existing HOWTO, you
must include the previous copyright statements of the previous
author(s) and the dates they maintained that document.
________________________________________________________________
6.2.2. Disclaimer
If you would like to include a disclaimer, you may choose to use the
following:
No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted.
Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There
may be errors and inaccuracies, that could be damaging to your
system. Proceed with caution, and although it is highly unlikely
that accidents will happen because of following advice or
procedures described in this document, the author(s) do not take
any responsibility for any damage claimed to be caused by doing
so.
All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners,
unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this
document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any
trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands
should not be seen as endorsements.
________________________________________________________________
6.2.3. Licensing source code
If your HOWTO includes bits of source code that you want others to
use, you may choose to release the source code under GPL.
________________________________________________________________
6.3. Acknowledgments
Your document should have an "Acknowledgments" section, in which you
mention everyone who has contributed to your document in any
meaningful way. You should include translators and converters, as
well as people who have sent you lots of good feedback, perhaps the
person who taught you the knowledge you are now passing on, and
anybody else who was instrumental in making the document what it is.
Most authors put this section at the end of their document.
When someone else assists in the production of an LDP document, you
should give them proper attribution, and there are DocBook tags
designed to do this. This section will show you the tags you should
use, as well as other ways of giving credit where credit is due.
Crediting editors is easy - there is already an <editor>tag in
DocBook. But there are two special cases where you need to credit
someone, but DocBook doesn't provide a special tag. These are
translators and converters.
A converter is someone who performs a source code conversion, for
instance from HTML to DocBook XML. Source code conversions help the
LDP achieve long term goals for meta-data, and allow us to distribute
documentation in many different formats.
Translators take your original document and translate it into other
human-readable languages, from English to Japanese for example, or
from German to English. Each translation allows many more people all
over the world to make use of your document and of the Linux
operating system!
We recommend that you acknowledge converters in the comment for the
initial version released in the new format, and we recommend that you
credit translators in each version which they have translated.
Note Acknowledgments translated in DocBook
For more information on how to add these credits using DocBook please
read Section D.6
________________________________________________________________
6.4. TLDP Review Process
Before your document is accepted to the LDP collection it will
undergo at least three formal reviews. These reviews include a
technical accuracy review, a language review and a metadata review.
All new documents must pass these reviews before being accepted into
the collection.
When you feel your document is finished, email a copy to the submit
mailing list (<submit@en.tldp.org>). Please include the title of your
document and "Final Review Required" in the subject line of your
email. A team of volunteers will be assigned to your document for
each of the reviews. It may take up to a week to gather a team who is
qualified to review your document. Typically the technical review
happens first, followed by the language review and finally the
metadata review. Your reviewers will read your document give you
feedback on whether or not they think your document is ready for
publication in the LDP collection.
Your reviewers may have specific points that must be changed. Once
you have made the changes submit your document back to your review
team. They will review the document again and advise you on whether
or not your document is ready for inclusion in the LDP collection.
You may need to undergo several edits before your document is ready.
Or it may not require any additional work. Be prepared to make at
least one round of changes for both the technical and language
reviews. Ideally this exchange will happen in the LDP's
[http://cvs.tldp.org] CVS to better track each of the changes that
are made, and keep track of the most current version of your
document.
Once your document has passed both the technical and language
reviews, you may submit it by following the instructions in Section
6.5.
Tip Comparing Two Source Files
Your reviewer may make changes directly to your source file, or they
may put their suggestions in a separate email. If they are working
with the source file directly, and your document is using DocBook
XML, you may find XMLdiff useful to see the changes that your
reviewer has made to your source file. It is a python tool that
figures out the differences between two similar XML files, in the
same way the diff utility compares text files.
XMLdiff is available from [http://www.logilab.org/projects/xmldiff]
http://www.logilab.org/projects/xmldiff.
For more information on what the reviewers will be looking for,
please read the
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/index.html] Linux
Documentation Project Reviewer HOWTO.
________________________________________________________________
6.5. Submission to LDP for publication
Note The final step
This section contains information on what to do after your document
has received both a technical and language review by the LDP
volunteers.
As part of the review process a Review Coordinator will add your
document to the CVS (including any associated image files) and notify
the submit mailing list that your document is ready for publication.
If you do not already have a CVS account, please apply for one when
your document is submitted for publication. You can apply for an
account contacting LDP CVS master Sergiusz [mailto:ser@gnu.org]
mailto:ser@gnu.org
________________________________________________________________
Chapter 7. Maintenance
7.1. Maintaining Your Document
Just because your document has now been published does not mean your
job is done. Linux documentation needs regular maintenance to make
sure it is up to date, and to improve it in response to readers'
ideas and suggestions. TLDP is a living, growing body of knowledge,
not just a publish-and-forget-it static entity.
Add relevant mailing lists to your document where people can get
support. If you have the time, follow these mailing lists yourself to
stay up-to-date on the latest information.
Put your email address in the document, and politely request feedback
from your readers. Once you are officially published, you will begin
to receive notes with suggestions. Some of these emails will be very
valuable. Create a folder in your mail program for incoming
suggestions--when the time is right review the folder and make
updates to your document. If you are following a related mailing list
you may also choose to save a copy of important emails from the list
to this folder.
Note We are not a free support service, but...
Some people who email you will request personal assistance. You
should feel free to decline personal assistance if you cannot spare
the time. Writing a contribution to the LDP does not commit you to a
lifetime of free support for anyone on the net; however, do try to
reply to all requests and suggest a mailing list that will
(hopefully) be able to provide support to your reader.
________________________________________________________________
7.2. Fixing Errors
7.2.1. Fixing Your Own Documents
If you find an error in your own document, please fix it and
re-submit the document. You can re-submit your files by emailing them
to <submit@en.tldp.org>.
If you have been using the CVS, you can submit your changes to the
CVS tree and then send a note to the submit mailing list
(<submit@en.tldp.org>). In your email please give the exact path of
your document in the CVS tree.
Remember to update the revision history at the top of the document.
________________________________________________________________
7.2.2. Fixing Other Documents in the Collection
If you find an error in someone else's document please contact the
author of the document with the correction. If you do not hear back
from the author within a "reasonable" amount of time, please email
the LDP coordinator at <discuss@en.tldp.org>
([http://tldp.org/mailinfo.html#maillists] subscription required) and
describe the problem and how you think it needs to be fixed. If the
license permits, you may be asked to make the change directly to the
document. If the problems are serious, the document may be removed
from the collection, or moved to the "Unmaintained" section.
Note Taking over unmaintained documentation
For more information on how to deal with unmaintained documents,
please read: [http://www.tldp.org/authors/unmaint.html] Unmaintained
(includes a list of steps to take to take over "ownership" of
unmaintained documents, and a list of unmaintained documents).
________________________________________________________________
References
Markup and general information
Secret Life of Markup, The,
[http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/42/index4a.html]
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/42/index4a.html, Steve
Champeon.
Progressive Enhancement and the Future of Web Design: Where We Are
Now , [http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/21/index3a_page2.html]
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/03/21/index3a_page2.html, Steve
Champeon.
SGML, [http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SGML/]
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SGML/.
________________________________________________________________
DocBook References
DocBook XML 4.1.2 Quick Start Guide,
[http://www.jimweller.net/jim/dbxmlqs/index.html]
http://www.jimweller.net/jim/dbxmlqs/index.html, Jim Weller.
Describes how to install, configure and use the tools and resources
for DocBook XML 4.1.2. The purpose of this quick start guide is to
get new docbook authors, editors, and contributors up and running
fast with the DoocBook tools. These are powerful tool in the hands of
an author. It assumes a fair knowledge of building and installing
source packages. There are probably a million and one ways to
accomplish my ultimate goal of installing and using these tools. This
one works well for me.
--Jim Weller
Installing And Using An XML/SGML DocBook Editing Suite Setting Up A
Free XML/SGML DocBook Editing Suite For Windows And Unix/Linux/BSD,
[http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bu
ild/tutorials/docbooksys/docbooksys.html]
http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bui
ld/tutorials/docbooksys/docbooksys.html , Ashley J.S. Mills, 2002.
Getting Upto Speed With DocBook,
[http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bu
ild/tutorials/UniDocBook/UniDocBook.html]
http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bui
ld/tutorials/UniDocBook/UniDocBook.html, Ashley J.S. Mills, 2002.
DocBook: The Definitive Guide, [http://www.docbook.org/]
http://www.docbook.org/, Norman Walsh, Leonard Muellner, 1999,
1-56592-580-7, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc..
This book was released by O'Reilly in October 1999, and is a great
reference to DocBook. I have not found it to be a great practical
book. You can pick it up at the book vendor of choice, and the entire
book is also available online (in HTML and SGML formats) at the above
URL.
Simplified DocBook: The Definitive Guide,
[http://www.docbook.org/tdg/simple/en/html/sdocbook.html]
http://www.docbook.org/tdg/simple/en/html/sdocbook.html, Norman
Walsh, Leonard Muellner, 1999.
Simplified DocBook, [http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/simple/]
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/simple/.
XML Matters: Getting started with the DocBook XML dialect,
[http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/xml-matters3.html]
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/xml-matters3.html.
FAQ for DocBook markup,
[http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/markup.html]
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/markup.html.
Single-Source Publishing with DocBook XML, , [
http://www.lodestar2.com/people/dyork/talks/2002/ols/docbook-tutorial
/frames/frames.html]
http://www.lodestar2.com/people/dyork/talks/2002/ols/docbook-tutorial
/frames/frames.html, Dan York, 2002.
DocBook Install mini-HOWTO,
[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/DocBook-Install/]
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/DocBook-Install/, Robert Easter.
Exploring SGML DocBook, [http://lwn.net/2000/features/DocBook/]
http://lwn.net/2000/features/DocBook/, Giorgio Zoppi.
________________________________________________________________
LinuxDoc
Howtos-with-LinuxDoc-mini-HOWTO,
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html]
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html, David Lawyer.
LinuxDoc-SGML User's Guide, [http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/doc/guide.html]
http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/doc/guide.html.
________________________________________________________________
Converting Other Formats to DocBook
Converting HTML to Docbook SGML/XML Using html2db,
[http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/tidy/]
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/tidy/.
5-Minute Review: Using LyX for Creating DocBook,
[http://www.teledyn.com/help/XML/lyx2db/t1.html]
http://www.teledyn.com/help/XML/lyx2db/t1.html.
Document processing with LyX and SGML,
[http://www.karakas-online.de/mySGML/]
http://www.karakas-online.de/mySGML/.
________________________________________________________________
LDP templates, tools & links
LDP Templates, , [http://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resources]
http://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resources .
Contains links to SGML templates and their resulting HTML output to
help you see what your document will look like. Many of the tags just
need to be replaced with information unique to your HOWTO. Also
contains links to tools and other useful information.
Linux Documentation Project HOWTO Generator, The,
[http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/The_LDP_HOWTO_Generator.html]
http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/The_LDP_HOWTO_Generator.html.
This is a standalone web page with a number of fields to fill in and
a few buttons. When ready the compile button starts the compilation
of all the input fields and wraps it all in proper LinuxDoc SGML,
ready to process with the LinuxDoc SGML tools.
The compiled output is outputted to a read-only text area near the
bottom of the webpage, so the text has to be copied and pasted into a
file for compilation.
DocBook is not currently supported.
________________________________________________________________
DocBook Transformations
DocBook XML/SGML Processing Using OpenJade, ,
[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/DocBook-OpenJade-SGML-XML-HOWTO/]
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/DocBook-OpenJade-SGML-XML-HOWTO/, Saqib Ali.
________________________________________________________________
General Writing Links and Style Guides
Guide to Grammar and Style,
[http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/]
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/, Jack Lynch.
Purdue's Online Writing Lab, [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/]
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/.
Chicago Manual of Style, [http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/]
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/.
Plain Language Resources,
[http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/Resources/]
http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/Resources/.
Writing User-Friendly Documents,
[http://www.blm.gov/nhp/NPR/pe_toc.html]
http://www.blm.gov/nhp/NPR/pe_toc.html.
This is quite useful. It includes before and after writing samples.
PlainTrain Writing Tutorial,
[http://www.web.net/~plain/PlainTrain/IntroducingPlainLanguage.html]
http://www.web.net/~plain/PlainTrain/IntroducingPlainLanguage.html.
Writing for the Web, [http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/]
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/.
Information Pollution, [http://useit.com/alertbox/20030811.html]
http://useit.com/alertbox/20030811.html.
Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web),
[http://useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html]
http://useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html.
Politics and the English Language,
[http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/essays/language.html]
http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/index.cgi/work/essays/language.html, George
Orwell.
A classic text on writing.
Elements of Style, The, [http://www.bartleby.com/141/]
http://www.bartleby.com/141/, Strunk and White.
A classic text on writing.
A Short Handbook and Style Sheet,
[http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/m.html#mechanics]
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/m.html#mechanics, Thomas
Pinney.
Technical Writing Links, [http://www.techcomplus.com/tips.htm]
http://www.techcomplus.com/tips.htm.
Technical Writing Tutorial,
[http://psdam.mit.edu/rise/tutorials/writing/technical-writing.html]
http://psdam.mit.edu/rise/tutorials/writing/technical-writing.html.
Strategies to succeed in technical writing,
[http://www.school-for-champions.com/techwriting.htm]
http://www.school-for-champions.com/techwriting.htm.
User Guides Online Tutorial,
[http://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/User-Guides-Tutorial.shtml]
http://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/User-Guides-Tutorial.shtml.
DMOZ Technical Writing Links,
[http://dmoz.org/Arts/Writers_Resources/Non-Fiction/Technical_Writing
/]
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Writers_Resources/Non-Fiction/Technical_Writing/
.
techwr-L, [http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/magazine/]
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/magazine/.
Technical Writing Links,
[http://academic.middlesex.cc.ma.us/PeterHarbeson/links.html]
http://academic.middlesex.cc.ma.us/PeterHarbeson/links.html.
An omnibus of links--scrounge for goodies.
________________________________________________________________
Related TLDP Documents
Linux Documentation Project (LDP) FAQ,
[http://tldp.org/FAQ/LDP-FAQ/index.html]
http://tldp.org/FAQ/LDP-FAQ/index.html, Rahul Sundaram.
LDP HOWTO-INDEX, [http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/]
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/, Guylhem Aznar, Joshua Drake, Greg
Ferguson.
________________________________________________________________
Software: CVS
CVS: Project Management, [http://doc.cs.byu.edu/programming/cvs/]
http://doc.cs.byu.edu/programming/cvs/, Byron Clark.
CVS,
[http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bu
ild/tutorials/cvstute/cvstute.html]
http://supportweb.cs.bham.ac.uk/documentation/tutorials/docsystem/bui
ld/tutorials/cvstute/cvstute.html, Ashley J.S. Mills, Alan P. Sexton.
CVS--Concurrent Versions System,
[http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html]
http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html, Pascal Molli.
Learning About CVS , [http://cvshome.org/docs/]
http://cvshome.org/docs/.
________________________________________________________________
Software: Emacs
Information about PSGML ,
[http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lenst/about_psgml/]
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lenst/about_psgml/.
Emacs: The Free Software IDE,
[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=576]
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=576.
Emacs/PSGML Quick Reference,
[http://www.snee.com/bob/sgmlfree/psgmqref.html]
http://www.snee.com/bob/sgmlfree/psgmqref.html, Bob Ducharme.
NT Emacs Installation, [http://www.charlescurley.com/emacs.html]
http://www.charlescurley.com/emacs.html, Charles Curley.
Cygwin Packages for DocBook Authoring,
[http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/CygwinPackages/]
http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/CygwinPackages/.
SGML for Windows NT: Setting up a free SGML/XML editing and
publishing system on Windows/Cygwin ,
[http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hoenicka_markus/cygbook1.ht
ml]
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hoenicka_markus/cygbook1.htm
l, Markus Hoenicka, 2000.
Vim, [http://www.newriders.com/books/opl/ebooks/0735710015.html]
http://www.newriders.com/books/opl/ebooks/0735710015.html, Steve
Oualline.
________________________________________________________________
XML Authoring Tools
Saqib's list of XML Authoring Tools,
[http://www.xml-dev.com/xml/editors.html]
http://www.xml-dev.com/xml/editors.html.
________________________________________________________________
Documentation Licenses
Licensing HOWTO, [http://www.catb.org/~esr/Licensing-HOWTO.html]
http://www.catb.org/~esr/Licensing-HOWTO.html, Eric Raymond,
Catherine Raymond.
This document explains how U.S. copyright and licensing law applies
to open-source software projects. It compares the strengths and
weaknesses of the existing open-source licenses, and gives guidance
on how to choose a license for your project. It also explains the
legalities of changing a project's license. It suggests new practice
for coping with today's high-threat legal environment--this part is a
must-read for all project leaders.
--Eric Raymond and Catherine Raymond
OPL, [http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/]
http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.
OpenContent officially closed June 30, 2003.
Creative Commons, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/]
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/.
GNU Free Documentation License,
[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html]
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.
GNU General Public License,
[http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL]
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL.
If you would like your documents to be included in the main Debian
distribution, you should use this license. It is not, however, the
LDP's license of choice.
________________________________________________________________
Appendix A. Templates
The LDP stores its documents in the following markup languages:
1. DocBook XML version 4.2 (preferred), 4.1.2
2. DocBook SGML version 4.2, 4.1, or 3.x
3. LinuxDoc SGML
Note New Documents
A new document may be submitted to the LDP in any format. Documents
which are not in DocBook or LinuxDoc will be converted by a
volunteer. The author is responsible for adding markup to any
revisions which are made.
________________________________________________________________
A.1. Document Templates
1. HOWTO (Article) [templates/ldp-howto.zip]
templates/ldp-howto.zip. Most HOWTO documents will use this
template.
2. Guide (Book) [templates/ldp-guide.zip] templates/ldp-guide.zip.
Use this template to create a full book (like this Author Guide,
for instance). Templates provided by Tille Garrels.
3. FAQ [templates/ldp-faq.zip] templates/ldp-faq.zip. A standard
article for writing a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list.
4. LinuxDoc[templates/ldp-linuxdoc.zip] templates/ldp-linuxdoc.zip.
A standard template both in HOWTO length and Guide length.
5. Disclaimer [disclaimer.xml] disclaimer.xml. A standard disclaimer
which warns readers that (1) your document may not be perfect and
(2) you are not responsible if things end up broken because of
it.
________________________________________________________________
A.2. Style Sheets
The following style sheets can be used to make your document nicer to
look at. Remember that the LDP will use its own style sheets to
distribute your documentation.
1. DSL Style Sheet [style.dsl] style.dsl. This DSL style sheet was
provided by Tille and is to be used with DSSSL transformations.
2. Cascading Style Sheet [style-ob.css] style-ob.css. This CSS file
was provided by Saqib Ali and Emma Jane Hogbin. The "ob" is for
"orange and blue". Use this CSS file with an HTML file.
Instructions are included in the CSS file.
________________________________________________________________
A.3. GNU Free Documentation License
The GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License) is available in XML format
at [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.xml]
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.xml. For a version in appendix format
suitable for including in your document, you can see get the XML for
this document from CVS at
[http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/guide/docbook/LDP-Author-Guide
/fdl-appendix.xml]
http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/guide/docbook/LDP-Author-Guide/
fdl-appendix.xml.
TLDP template files for DocBook (XML and SGML) and Linuxdoc SGML are
available from the TLDP website at
[http://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resources]
http://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resources.
________________________________________________________________
Appendix B. System Setup: Editors, Validation and Transformations
In this section, we will cover some of the tools that you may want to
use to create your own LDP documentation. If you use some other tool
to assist you in writing documents for the LDP, please drop us a line
and we'll add a blurb for it here. Section 1.3 has contact
information.
________________________________________________________________
B.1. Tools for your operating system
A few notes on setting up your system for DocBook publishing. These
tools focus more on the transformation of documents from DocBook to
XHTML (for example).
Tools For Your Operating System
Debian
http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/DebianGnuLinuxPackages
[http://www.surgo.net] Morgon Kanter suggests apt-get install
docbook-xml docbook-xsl xsltproc as the minimum requirements.
[http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:4851]
http://lists.tldp.org/index.cgi?1:mss:4851
Fedora (aka the new RedHat)
Notes contributed by Charles Curley.
Tools for Docbook SGML and XML are included in the
distrubution. So are Emacs and PSGML mode, although you will
have to customize your .emacs. If you are missing a package
after installing Fedora, get familiar with yum or apt.
Installation instructions: none; use Red Hat 9 until they are
written:
[http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/]
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/.
Mandrake
Notes contributed by [http://www.artemio.net] Artemio.
In Mandrake (as of my current 9.2), all the stuff including
openjade, xmlto, docbook-utils etc. comes as standard.
So I just needed to get the TLDP XSL sheet and that's all.
Didn't ever have any dependency or other problems, everything
works fine (knock on wood :-)).
RedHat
According to Hal Burgiss, your system is likely already ready
to edit and process DocBook documents without installing any
additional packages.
________________________________________________________________
B.2. Editing tools
Editing tools have come a long way in their support for XML (and
specifically DocBook). There are two types of editors outlined in
this section: text editors (emacs, vim, etc); and word processors
(OpenOffice, AbiWord, etc). New authors who are not comfortable
working with markup languages should probably choose a word processor
that can output DocBook files. For this reason the word processors
are listed first.
Although many editors can also validate your DocBook files, this
information has been separated into Section B.3.
Note More info
Check the resources section for more .
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1. Word Processors
Even if you are not comfortable working DocBook's tagset in a text
editor you can still produce valid DocBook documents using a word
processor. Support at this point is very limited, but it does exist
in the following programs. The up side, of course, is that things
like spell check are built in to the program. In addition to this,
support for DocBook (and XML) is constantly improving.
Note Converting Microsoft Word documents
Even if you want to use MS Word to write your documents, you may find
[http://www.docsoft.com/w2xmlv2.htm] w2XML useful. Note that this is
not free software--the cost is around $130USD. There is, however, a
trial version of the software.
Note Work on the content!
Remember that all formatting changes you make to your document will
be ignored when your document is released by the LDP. Instead of
focusing on how your document looks, focus on the content.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.1. AbiWord
Through word of mouth I've heard that AbiWord can work (natively)
with DocBook documents. This will need to be tested by someone
(possibly me) and should definitely be included if it is the case.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.2. OpenOffice.org
[http://openoffice.org] http://openoffice.org
As of OpenOffice.org (OOo) 1.1RC there has been support for exporting
files to DocBook format.
Although OOo uses the full DocBook document type declaration, it does
not actually export the full list of DocBook elements. It uses a
"simplified" DocBook tagset which is geared to on-the-fly rendering.
(Although it is not the official Simplified DocBook which is
described in Section B.5.) The OpenOffice simplified (or "special"
docbook) is available from
[http://xml.openoffice.org/xmerge/docbook/supported_tag_table.html]
http://xml.openoffice.org/xmerge/docbook/supported_tag_table.html.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.2.1. Open Office 1.0.x
OOo has been tested by LDP volunteers with mostly positive results.
Thanks to Charles Curley ([http://www.charlescurley.com]
charlescurley.com) for the following notes on using OOo version
1.0.x:
Note Check the version of your OpenOffice
These notes may not apply to the version of OOo you are using.
* To be able to export to DocBook, you must have a Java runtime
environment (JRE) installed and registered with OOo--a minimum of
version 4.2.x is recommended. The configuration instructions will
depend on how you installed your JRE. Visit the OOo web site for
help with your setup.
Contrary to the OOo documentation, the Linux OOo did not come
with a JRE. I got one from Sun.
* The exported file has lots of empty lines. My 54 line exported
file had 5 lines of actual XML code.
* There was no effort at pretty printing.
* The header is: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE
article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
* The pull-down menu in the File->Save As dialog box for file
format indicates that the export format is "DocBook
(simplified)." There is no explanation of what that "simplified"
indicates. Does OOo export a subset of DocBook? If so, which
elements are ignored? Is there any way to enter any of them
manually?
* There is NO documentation on the DocBook export filter or whether
OOo will import it again.
Conclusions: OOo 1.1RC is worth looking at if you want a word
processor for preparing DocBook documents.
However, I hope they cure the lack of documentation. For one thing,
it would be nice to know which native OOo styles map to which DocBook
elements. It would also be nice to know how to map one's own OOo
styles to DocBook elements.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.2.2. Open Office 1.1
[http://www.merlinmonroe.com] Tabatha Marshall offers the following
additional information for OOo 1.1.
The first problem was when I tried to do everything on version
1.0.1. That was obviously a problem. I have RH8, and it was
installed via rpm packages, so I ripped it out and did a full, new
install of OpenOffice 1.1. It took a while to find out 1.1 was a
requirement for XML to work.
During the install process I believe I was offered the choice to
install the XML features. I have a tendency to do full installs of
my office programs, so I selected everything.
I can't offer any advice to those trying to update their current
OO 1.1. Their "3 ways" aren't documented very well at the site
([http://xml.openoffice.org] xml.openoffice.org) and as of this
writing, I can't even find THAT on their site anymore. I think
more current documentation is needed there to walk people through
the process. Most of this was unclear and I had to pretty much
experiment to get things working.
Well, after I installed everything I had some configuration to do.
I opened the application, and got started by opening a new file,
choosing templates, then selecting the DocBook template. A nice
menu of Paragraph Styles popped up for me, which are the names for
all those tags, I noticed (you can see I don't use WYSIWYG often).
With a blank doc before me (couldn't get to the XML Filter
Settings menu unless some type of doc was opened), I went into
Tools->XML Filter Settings, and edited the entry for DocBook file.
I configured mine as follows:
* Doctype -//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN
* DTD http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd
* XSLT for export
/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/share/xslt/docbook/ldp-html.xsl
* XSLT for import
/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/share/xslt/docbook/docbooktosoffhe
adings.xsl (this is the default)
* Template for import
/home/tabatha/OpenOffice/user/template/DocBook
File/DocBookTemplate.stw
At first, if I opened an XML file that had even one parsing error,
it would just open the file anyway and display the markup in OO. I
have many XML files that use &copy; and other types of entities
which show up as parse errors (depending on the encoding) even
though they can be processed through. But today I was unable to
open any of those files. I got input/output errors instead. Still
investigating that one.
However when you do successfully open a document (one parsing with
no errors), it puts it automatically into WYSIWYG based on the
markup, and you can then work from the paragraph styles menu like
any other such editor.
To validate the document, I used Tools->XML Filter Settings, then
clicked the Test XSLTs button. On my screen, I set up the XSLT for
export to be ldp-html.xsl. If you test and there are errors, a new
window pops up with error messages at the bottom, and the lines
that need to be changed up at the top. You can change them there
and progress through the errors until they're all gone, and keep
testing until they're gone.
If you want to open a file to see the source instead of the
processed results, go to Tools->XML Filter Settings->Test XSLTs,
and then under the Import section, check the Display Source box.
My import XSLT is currently docbooktosoffheadings.xsl (the
default) and the template for import is DocBookTemplate.stw (also
default).
I think this might work for some people, but unfortunately not for
me. I've never used WYSIWYG to edit markup. Emacs with PSGML can
tell me what my next tag is no matter where I am, validate by
moving through the trouble spots, and I can parse and process from
command line.
With OpenOffice, you have to visit
[http://xml.openoffice.org/filters.html]
http://xml.openoffice.org/filters.html to find conversion tools.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.3. WordPerfect 9 (Corel Office 2000)
[http://www.corel.com/] http://www.corel.com/
WordPerfect 9 for the MS Windows platform has support for SGML and
DocBook 3.0. WordPerfect 9 for Linux has no SGML capabilities.
If you are using WordPerfect on the Linux operating system, please
read: WordPerfect on Linux FAQ
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.4. XMLmind's XML editor
[http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/] http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/
Although strictly speaking, it is not a word processor, XMLmind's XML
editor allows authors to concentrate on the content, and not the
markup. It has built in spelling and conversion utilities which allow
you to transform your documents without having to install and
configure an additional processing tool such as jade. There is a free
"standard edition", which is a simplified version of their
"professional edition."
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.5. Conglomerate
[http://www.conglomerate.org] http://www.conglomerate.org
According to their web site, "Conglomerate aims to be an XML editor
that everyone can use. In particular, our primary goal is to create
the ultimate editor for DocBook and similar formats. It aims to hide
the jargon and complexity of XML and present the information in your
documents in a way that makes sense."
________________________________________________________________
B.2.1.6. Vex: a visual editor for XML
[http://vex.sourceforge.net/] http://vex.sourceforge.net/
According to their web site, "The visual part comes from the fact
that Vex hides the raw XML tags from the user, providing instead a
wordprocessor-like interface. Because of this, Vex is best suited for
document-style XML documents such as XHTML and DocBook rather than
data-style XML documents."
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2. Text Editors
Caution For advanced writers
The tools outlined in this section allow you to work with the DocBook
tags directly. If you are not comfortable working with markup
languages you may want to use a word processor instead. Word
processors that support DocBook are described in Section B.2.1.
If you are comfortable working with markup languages and text
editors, you'll probably want to customize your current editor of
choice to handle DocBook files. Below are some of the more common
text editors that can, with some tweaking, handle DocBook files.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.1. Emacs (PSGML)
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lenst/about_psgml/
Emacs has an SGML writing mode called psgml that is a major mode
designed for editing SGML and XML documents. It provides:
* "syntax highlighting" or "pretty printing" features that make the
tags stand out
* a way to insert tags other than typing them by hand
* and the ability to validate your document while writing
For users of Emacs, it's a great way to go. PSGML works with DocBook,
LinuxDoc and other DTDs equally well.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.1.1. Verifying PSGML is Installed
If you have installed a recent distribution, you may already have
PSGML installed for use with Emacs. To check, start Emacs and look
for the PSGML documentation (C-himpsgml).
Tip Dependencies
If you don't have PSGML installed now might be a good time to upgrade
Emacs. The rest of these instructions will assume you have PSGML
installed.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.1.2. Configuring Emacs for Use With PSGML
If you want GNU Emacs to enter PSGML mode when you open an .xml file,
it will need to be able to find the DocBook DTD files. If your
distribution already had PSGML set up for use with GNU Emacs, you
probably won't need to do anything.
Note Tuning Emacs
For more information on how to configure Emacs, check out .
Once you've configured your system to use PSGML you will need to
override Emacs' default sgml-mode with the psgml-mode. This can be
done by configuring your .emacs file. After you've edited the
configuration file you will need to restart Emacs.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.1.3. Creating New DocBook XML Files
There are a number of steps to creating a new DocBook XML file in
Emacs.
* Create a new file with an xml extension.
* On the first line of the file enter the doctype for the version
of DocBook that you would like to use. If you're not sure what a
doctype is all about, check Section B.5
* Enter C-c C-p. If Emacs manages to parse your DTD, you will see
Parsing prolog...done in the minibuffer.
* Enter C-c C-e Enter to auto-magically insert the parent element
for your document. (New authors are typically writing articles.)
* If things are working correctly, you should see new tags for the
parent element for your document right after the document type
declaration. In other words you should now see two extra tags:
<article> and </article> in your document.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.1.4. Spell Checking in Emacs
Emacs can be configured to use aspell by adding the following to your
~/.emacs file. Thanks to [http://www.ertius.org] Rob Weir for this
configuration information.
;; Use aspell
(setq-default ispell-program-name "aspell")
;;Setup some dictionary languages
(setq ispell-dictionary "british")
(setq flyspell-default-dictionary "british")
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.2. epcEdit
[http://www.tksgml.de/] http://www.tksgml.de
The epcEdit program allows you to edit XML files. It has the
advantages of not needing to know Emacs or vi before starting, and is
cross-platform, working in both Windows and Linux. This is a
commercial application, and pricing can be found at
[http://www.tksgml.de/pricing.html] http://www.tksgml.de/pricing.html
Along with visual editing, epcEdit will also validate documents on
loading, and on demand by using the Document->Validate command.
Figure B-1. epcEdit screen shot
[sgeditscreenshot.jpg]
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.3. Morphon XML editor
[http://www.morphon.com/xmleditor/index.shtml]
http://www.morphon.com/xmleditor/index.shtml
This is a commercial application which is currently available for
free (with an optional user registration). It is written in Java,
allowing it to run on any platform that has a Java Virtual Machine
(that is, works in both Windows and Linux).
On the plus sides of XMLEditor is the left side of the screen shows
the hierarchy of the document (starting with Book and so on).
Selecting an item in the list brings you to that part of the document
so you can edit it. The right part of the screen shows the text
without any markup or tags being shown. If you have external files as
ELEMENTS (as the LDP Author Guide does), XMLEditor will follow the
links and load the files, so you always work on the entire work. On
the minus side of this, you will get errors if a file is missing.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.4. nedit
[http://nedit.org] http://nedit.org
To be fair, nedit is more for programmers, so it might seem a bit of
overkill for new users and especially non-programmers. All that
aside, it's extremely powerful, allowing for syntax highlighting.
Unlike epcEdit, nedit doesn't allow you to automatically insert tags
or automatically validate your code. However, it does allow for shell
commands to be run against the contents of the window (as opposed to
saving the file, then checking).
Figure B-2. nedit screen shot
[neditscreenshot.jpg]
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.4.1. Using nedit
When you open your DocBook file, nedit should already have syntax
highlighting enabled. If it does not you can turn it on explicitly
using: Preferences->Language Mode->SGML HTML
If you have line numbers turned on (using Preferences->Show Line
Numbers) then finding validation errors is much simpler. nsgmls, the
validation tool we'll use, lists errors by their line number.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.4.2. Configuring nedit
Since you can feed the contents of your window to outside programs,
you can easily extend nedit to perform repetitive functions. The
example you'll see here is to validate your document using nsgmls.
For more information about nsgmls and validating documents please
read Section B.3.
* Select Preferences->Default Settings->Customize Menus->Shell
Menu.... This will bring up the Shell Command dialog box, with
all the shell commands nedit has listed under the Shell menu.
* Under Menu Entry, enter "Validate DocBook." This will be the
entry you'll see on the screen.
* Under Accelerator, press Alt-S. Once this menu item is set up,
you can press Alt-S to have the Validate DocBook automatically
run.
* Under Command Input, select window, and under Command Output,
select dialog.
* Under Command to Execute, enter nsgmls -sv. Using -v outputs the
version number is output to the screen so that you know the
command has run.
Note Check the PATH
Note that nsgmls has to be in your PATH for this to work properly.
Figure B-3. Adding shell commands to nedit
[neditshellcommand.jpg]
* Click OK and you'll now be back at the main nedit screen. Load up
an XML file, and select Shell->Validate DocBook or press Alt-S.
* The nedit program will fire up and check the contents of the
window.
* If all you see is a version number for nsgml then your document
is valid. Any errors are reported by line number in your
document.
Figure B-4. nsgmls output on success
[neditsuccess.jpg]
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.5. VIM
[http://www.vim.org] http://www.vim.org
No mention of text editors is complete without talking about vi. The
VIM (Vi IMproved) editor has the functionality of regular vi and
includes "syntax highlighting" of tags.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.5.1. Getting Started
There are many versions of vi. New authors will likely want one of
the more feature-packed versions for syntax highlighting and a
graphical interface including mouse control.
Red Hat users will want the following packages: vim-common,
vim-minimal and vim-enhanced. Debian users will want the following
package: vim. For an X interface (including GUI menus and mouse
control) users will want gvim. The "g" in gvim is for "Graphical".
VIM compiles very easy should you need to build your own. Both vim
and gvim are built by default. Syntax highlighting is included but
not enabled by default if you have to start from scratch; use the
:syntax enable command in VIM to turn this feature on.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.5.2. Creating New DocBook XML Files
In both vim and gvim, .xml files will be recognized and enter into
"SGML mode". A series of known DocBook tags and attributes have been
entered into vim and will be highlighted one color if the name is
known and another if it is not (for this author the colors are yellow
and blue).
Having the correct document type declaration at the top of your
document should add the syntax highlighting. If you do not see this
highlighting you will need to force VIM into SGML mode (even for XML
files) using the command :set ft=sgml. If you are working with
multiple files for a single XML document you can add your document
type in <-- comments --> to the top of the file to get the correct
syntax highlighting (you will need to restart the program to see the
change in highlighting). The top line of this file
(tools-text-editors.xml) looks like this:
<!-- <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC '-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN'> -->
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.5.3. Spell Check
As in Emacs, Vim, will work quite happily with aspell. It can be run
from within Vim with the following: :! aspell -c %.
For more sophisticated spell check alternatives, give
[http://cream.sourceforge.net/] Cream or
[http://www.vim.org/scripts/script_search_results.php?keywords=vimspe
ll&script_type=&order_by=rating&direction=descending&search=search]
vimspell a try.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.5.4. Tag Completion
The following information is provided by
[http://www.digitalhermit.com] Kwan Lowe.
Vim has a DocBook helper script which can be easily copied into your
.vimscripts directory and used to "auto complete" tags while writing
DocBook documents. The script can be downloaded from:
[http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=38]
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=38.
Grab the file, then untar it. Copy the dbhelper.vim to your
.vimscripts directory if you have one.
$ mkdir .vimscripts
$ cp dbhelper.vim .vimscripts
You'll also have to convert the dbhelper.vim file to unix
formatting:
$ dos2unix dbhelper.vim
Next, edit your .vimrc file and add the line: source
/home/yourname/.vimscripts/dbhelper.vim
To use the scripts, enter vi and go into insert mode. Press ,
(comma) followed by the shortcut. For example: ,dtbk
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.6. XMLForm
[http://www.datamech.com/XMLForm/] http://www.datamech.com/XMLForm/
This web-based application allows you to put in the URL for XML
source, or copy and paste the XML directly into the web form. The
application then breaks down your document into a series of form
fields that hide the DocBook tags so that you may edit the content
directly. Version 5 is available from
[http://www.datamech.com/XMLForm/formGenerator5.html]
http://www.datamech.com/XMLForm/formGenerator5.html. This application
is best on shorter documents (less than 20 pages printed).
As this is an on-line tool, it will be good for small updates only.
________________________________________________________________
B.2.2.7. XMLmind XML Editor (XXE)
[http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor] http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor
David Horton offers the following information:
I am a big fan of XMLMind's XXE editor and XFC FO converter. It is
"free as in beer," but not necessarily "free as in speech." Very
liberal license for personal use however. It's Java-based so it
works on all sorts of OS's.
________________________________________________________________
B.3. Validation
B.3.1. Why Validate Your Document
The LDP uses a number of scripts to distribute your document. These
scripts submit your document to the LDP's CVS (a free document
version management system), and then they transform your document to
other formats that users then read. Your document will also be
mirrored on a number of sites worldwide (yet another set of scripts).
In order for these scripts to work correctly, your document must be
both "well formed" and use "valid markup". Well formed means your
document follows the rules that XML is expecting: it complies with
XML grammar rules. Valid markup means you only use elements or tags
which are "valid" for your document: XML vocabulary rules are
applied.
If your document is not well formed or uses invalid markup, the
scripts will not be able to process it. As a result, your revised
document will not be distributed.
Note The Docbook Section
There is more information about how to validate your document in the
DocBook section. Check out Section B.3 for more help with validating
your document.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.2. Validation for the Faint of Heart
Your life is already hard enough without having to install a full set
of tools just to see if you validate as well. You can upload your raw
XML files to a web site, then go to [http://validate.sf.net]
http://validate.sf.net, enter the URL to your document, then validate
it.
Note External entities
When this information was added to the Author Guide external entities
were not supported. Follow the instructions provided on the Validate
site if you have trouble.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.3. Validation for the Not So Faint Of Heart
________________________________________________________________
B.3.3.1. Catalogs
XML and SGML files contain most of the information you need; however,
there are sometimes entities which are specific to SGML in general.
To match these entities to their actual values you need to use a
catalog. The role of a catalog is to tell your system where to find
the files it is looking for. You may want to think of a catalog as a
guide book (or a map) for your tools.
Most distributions (Red Hat/Fedora and Debian at least) have a common
location for the main SGML catalog file, called /etc/sgml/catalog. In
times past, it could also be found in /usr/lib/sgml/catalog.
The structure of XML catalog files is not the same as SGML catalog
files. The section on tailoring a catalog (see Section B.3.4) will
give more details about what these files actually contain.
If your system cannot find the catalog file, or you are using custom
catalog files, you may need to set the SGML_CATALOG_FILES and
XML_CATALOG_FILES environment variables. Using echo
$SGML_CATALOG_FILES, check to see if it is currently set. If a blank
line is returned, the variable has not been set. Use the same command
to see if XML_CATALOG_FILES is set as well. If the variables are not
set, use the following example to set them now.
Example B-1. Setting the SGML_CATALOG_FILES and XML_CATALOG_FILES
Environmental Variables
bash$ export SGML_CATALOG_FILES="/etc/sgml/catalog"
To make this change permanent, you can add the following lines to
your ~/.bashrc file.
SGML_CATALOG_FILES="/etc/sgml/catalog"
export SGML_CATALOG_FILES
If you installed XML tools via a RedHat or Debian package, you
probably don't need to do this step. If you are using a custom XML
catalog you will definitely need to do this. There is more on custom
catalogs in the next section. To ensure my backup scripts grab this
custom file, I have added mine in a sub-directory of my home
directory named "docbook".
bash$ export XML_CATALOG_FILES="/home/user/docbook/db-catalog.xml"
You can also change your .bashrc if you want to save these changes.
XML_CATALOG_FILES="/home/user/docbook/db-catalog.xml"
export XML_CATALOG_FILES
If you are adding the changes to your .bashrc you will not see the
changes until you open a new terminal window. To make the changes
immediate in the current terminal, "source" the configuration file.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.4. Creating and modifying catalogs
In the previous section I mentioned a catalog is like a guide book
for your tools. Specifically, a catalog maps the rules from the
public identifier to your system's files.
At the top of every DocBook (or indeed every XML) file there is a
DOCTYPE which tells the processing tool what kind of document it is
about to be processed. At a minimum this declaration will include a
public identifier, such as -//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.2//EN. This
public identifier has a number of sections all separated by //. It
contains the following information: ISO standard if any (- -- in this
case there is no ISO standard), author (OASIS), type of document (DTD
DocBook V4.2), language (English). Your DOCTYPE may also include a
URL.
A public identifier is useless to a processing tool, as it needs to
be able to access the actual DTD. A URL is useless if the processing
tool is off-line. To help your processor deal with these problems you
can download all of the necessary files and then "map" them for your
processing tools by using a catalog.
If you are using SGML processing tools (for instance Jade), you will
need an SGML catalog. If you are using XML processing tools (like
XSLT), you will need an XML catalog. Information on both is included.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.4.1. SGML Catalogs
Example B-2. Example of an SGML catalog
(1)
-- Catalog for the Conectiva Styles --
OVERRIDE YES
(2)
PUBLIC "-//Conectiva SA//DTD DocBook Conectiva variant V1.0//EN"
"/home/ldp/styles/books.dtd"
DELEGATE "-//OASIS"
"/home/ldp/SGML/dtds/catalog.dtd"
(3)
DOCTYPE BOOK /home/ldp/SGML/dtds/docbook/db31/docbook.dtd
-- EOF --
(1)
Comment. Comments start with "--" and follow to the end of the
line.
(2)
The public type association "-//Conectiva SA//DTD books
V1.0//EN" with the file books.dtd on the directory
/home/ldp/styles.
(3)
Comment signifying the end of the file.
As in the example above, to associate an identifier to a file just
follow the sequence shown:
1. Copy the identifier PUBLIC
2. Type the identifying text
3. Indicate the path to the associated file
________________________________________________________________
B.3.4.1.1. Useful commands for catalogs
The most common mappings to be used in catalogs are:
PUBLIC
The keyword PUBLIC maps public identifiers for identifiers on
the system.
SYSTEM
The SYSTEM keyword maps system identifiers for files on the
system.
SYSTEM
"http://nexus.conectiva/utilidades/publicacoes/livros.dtd"
"publicacoes/livros.dtd"
SGMLDECL
The keyword SGMLDECL designates the system identifier of the
SGML statement that should be used.
SGMLDECL "publishings/books.dcl"
DTDDECL
Similar to the SGMLDECL the keyword DTDDECL identifies the
SGML statement that should be used. DTDDECL makes the
association of the statement with a public identifier to a
DTD. Unfortunately, this association isn't supported by the
open source tools available. The benefits of this statement
can be achieved somehow with multiple catalog files.
DTDDECL "-//Conectiva SA//DTD livros V1.0//EN"
"publicacoes/livros.dcl"
CATALOG
The keyword CATALOG allows a catalog to be included inside
another. This is a way to make use of several different
catalogs without the need to alter them.
OVERRIDE
The keyword OVERRIDE informs whether an identifier has
priority over a system identifier. The standard on most
systems is that the system identifier has priority over the
public one.
DELEGATE
The keyword DELEGATE allows the association of a catalog to a
specific type of public identifier. The clause DELEGATE is
very similar to the CATALOG, except for the fact that it
doesn't do anything until a specific pattern is specified.
DOCTYPE
If a document starts with a type of document, but has no
public identifier and no system identifier the clause DOCTYPE
associates this document with a specific DTD.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.4.2. XML Catalogs
The following sample catalog was provided by Martin A. Brown.
Example B-3. Sample XML Catalog file
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE catalog PUBLIC "-//OASIS/DTD Entity Resolution XML Catalog V1.0//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/release/1.0/catalog.dtd
">
<catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog">
<public publicId="-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
uri="/home/mabrown/docbook/dtds/4.2/docbookx.dtd"/>
<uri name="http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd"
uri="/home/mabrown/docbook/dtds/4.2/docbookx.dtd"/>
<uri name="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/xhtml/docbook
.xsl"
uri="/home/mabrown/docbook/xsl/xhtml/docbook.xsl"/>
<uri name="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/xhtml/chunk.x
sl"
uri="/home/mabrown/docbook/xsl/xhtml/chunk.xsl"/>
<uri name="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/xhtml/profile
-chunk.xsl"
uri="/home/mabrown/docbook/xsl/xhtml/profile-chunk.xsl"/>
</catalog>
________________________________________________________________
B.3.5. Validating XML
B.3.5.1. nsgmls
You can use nsgmls, which is part of the jade suite (on Debian
apt-get the docbook-utils package, see Section B.4.2), to validate
SGML or XML documents.
bash$ nsgmls -s HOWTO.xml
If there are no issues, you'll just get your command prompt back. The
-s tells nsgmls to show only the errors.
Tip Function not found
If you get errors about a function not being found, or something
about an ISO character not having an authoritative source, you may
need to point nsgmls to your xml.dcl file. For Red Hat 9, it will
look like this: nsgmls -s /usr/share/sgml/xml.dcl HOWTO.xml
For more information on processing files with Jade/OpenJade please
read
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DocBook-OpenJade-SGML-XML-HOWTO/index.html
] DocBook XML/SGML Processing Using OpenJade.
________________________________________________________________
B.3.5.2. onsgmls
This is an alternative to nsgmls. It ships with the OpenJade package.
This program gives more options than nsgmls and allows you to quietly
ignore a number of problems that arise while trying to validate an
XML file (as opposed to an SGML file). This also means you don't have
to type out the location of your xml.dcl file each time.
I was able to simply use the following to validate a file with only
error messages that were related to my markup errors.
bash$ onsgmls -s HOWTO.xml
According to Bob Stayton you can also turn off specific error
messages. The following example turns off XML-specific error
messages.
bash$ onsgmls -s -wxml -wno-explicit-sgml-decl HOWTO.xml
________________________________________________________________
B.3.5.3. xmllint
You can also use the xmllint command-line tool from the libxml2
package to validate your documents. This tool does a simple check on
completeness of tags and whether all tags that are opened, are also
closed again. By default xmllint will output a results tree. So if
your document comes out until the last line, you know there are no
heavy errors having to do with tag mismatches, opening and closing
errors and the like.
To prevent printing the entire document to your screen, add the
--noout parameter.
bash$ xmllint --noout HOWTO.xml
If nothing is returned, your document contains no syntax errors.
Else, start with the first error that was reported. Fix that one
error, and run the tool again on your document. If it still returns
output, again fix the first error that you see, don't botter with the
rest since further errors are usually generated because of the first
one.
If you would like to check your document for any errors which are
specific to your Document Type Definition, add --valid.
bash$ xmllint --noout --valid HOWTO.xml
The xmllint tool may also be used for checking errors in the XML
catalogs, see the man pages for more info on how to set this
behavior.
If you are a Mac OSX or Windows user, you may also want to check out
tkxmllint, a GUI version of xmllint. More information is available
from: [http://tclxml.sourceforge.net/tkxmllint.html]
http://tclxml.sourceforge.net/tkxmllint.html.
Example B-4. Debugging example using xmllint
The example below shows how you can use xmllint to check your
documents. I've created some errors that I made a lot, as a beginning
XML writer. At first, the document doesn't come through, and errors
are shown:
bash$ xmllint ldp-history.xml
ldp-history.xml:22: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: articlinfo line 6
and articleinfo
</articleinfo>
^
ldp-history.xml:37: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: listitem line 36 a
nd orderedlist
</orderedlist>
^
ldp-history.xml:39: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: orderedlist line 3
4 and sect2
</sect2>
^
ldp-history.xml:46: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: sect1 line 41 and
para
for many authors to contribute their part in their area of specialization.</pa
ra
^
ldp-history.xml:57: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: para line 55 and s
ect1
</sect1>
^
ldp-history.xml:59: error: Opening and ending tag mismatch: sect2 line 31 and
article
</article>
^
ldp-history.xml:61: error: Premature end of data in tag sect1 line 24
^
ldp-history.xml:61: error: Premature end of data in tag article line 5
^
Now, as we already mentioned, don't worry about anything except the
first error. The first error says there is an inconsistency between
the tags on line 6 and line 22 in the file. Indeed, on line 6 we left
out the "e" in "articleinfo". Fix the error, and run xmllint again.
The first complaint now is about the offending line 37, where the
closing tag for list items has been forgotten. Fix the error and run
the validation tool again, until all errors are gone. Most common
errors include forgetting to open or close the paragraph tag,
spelling errors in tags and messed up sections.
________________________________________________________________
B.4. Transformations
Warning TLDP will convert your document
This section is about how to transform documents from DocBook to
other formats. If you do not need to transform documents for your own
web site, or to proof read the content, please skip this section.
If you would like to transform your documents for proofreading
purposes, please use the XML to HTML on-line converter. You will need
to upload your XML file(s) to a web site. Then simply drop the URL
into the form and click the submit button. Your document will be
magically transformed into a beautiful (and legible) HTML document.
External files are supported. You may use either absolute or relative
URIs.
Another easy-to-use package is xmlto. It is a front-end for xsltproc.
It is available as a RedHat, Debian (etc) package or can be
downloaded from [http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/]
http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/. You can use it to convert documents
with:
bash$ xmlto html mydoc.xml
bash$ xmlto txt mydoc.xml
You do not ever need to transform documents before submitting to the
LDP. The LDP volunteers have a system which transforms your DocBook
file into HTML, PDF and plain text formats. There, you've been
warned.
Still here? Great! Transformations are a pretty basic requirement to
get what you've written from a messy tag-soup into something that can
be read. This section will help you get your system set up and ready
to transform your latest document into other formats. This is very
useful is you want to see your document before you release it to the
world.
There are currently two ways to transform your document: Document
Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL); and XML Style
sheets (XSLT). Although the LDP web site uses DSSSL to convert
documents you may use XSLT if you want. You only need to choose one
of these methods. For more information about DSSSL read: Section
B.4.1, for more information about XSLT read: Section B.4.3.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1. DSSSL
There are three basic requirements to transform a document using
DSSSL:
* The Document Style and Semantics Specification Language files
(these are plain text files). Section B.4.1.1
* The Document Type Definition file which matches the DOCTYPE of
your document (this is a plain text file). Section B.5
* A processor to do the actual work. Section B.4.1.2
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1.1. The Style Sheets
There are two versions of the Document Style Semantics and
Specification Language used by the LDP to transform documents from
your raw DocBook files into other formats (which are then published
on the Web). The LDP version of the style sheets requires the Norman
Walsh version--which basically means if you're using DSSSL the Norman
Walsh version can be considered a requirement for system setup.
Norman Walsh DSSSL [http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/dsssl/]
http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/dsssl/. The Document Style
Semantics and Specification Language tells Jade (see Section B.4.1.2)
how to render a DocBook document into print or on-line form. The
DSSSL is what converts a title tag into an <h1> HTML tag, or to 14
point bold Times Roman for RTF, for example. Documentation for DSSSL
is located at the same site. Note that modifying the DSSSL doesn't
modify DocBook itself. It merely changes the way the rendered text
looks. The LDP uses a modified DSSSL (see below).
LDP DSSSL [http://www.tldp.org/authors/tools/ldp.dsl]
http://www.tldp.org/authors/tools/ldp.dsl. The LDP DSSSL requires the
Norman Walsh version (see above) but is a slightly modified DSSSL to
provide things like a table of contents.
Example B-5. "Installing" DSSSL style sheets
Create a base directory to store everything such as /usr/share/sgml/.
Copy the DSSSL style sheets into a sub-directory named dsssl.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1.2. DSSSL Processors
There are two versions of the Jade processor: the original version by
James Clark; and an open-source version of approximately the same
program, OpenJade. You only need one of these programs. It should be
installed after the DTD and DSSSL have been "installed."
DSSSL Transformation Tools
Jade
[ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/jade/]
ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/jade/
Currently, the latest version of the package is
jade-1.2.1.tar.gz.
Jade is the front-end processor for SGML and XML. It uses the
DSSSL and DocBook DTD to perform the verification and
rendering from SGML and XML into the target format.
OpenJade
[http://openjade.sourceforge.net/]
http://openjade.sourceforge.net/
An extension of Jade written by the DSSSL community. Some
applications require jade, but are being updated to support
either software package.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1.3. System Setup for DSSSL Transformations
1. Tell your system where to find the SGML_CATALOG_FILES (yes, even
if you are using XML). You can find an example of how to do this
in Example B-1.
2. Download the DSSSL and DTD files and copy them into your working
directory. You can find an example of how to do this in Example
B-5 and Example B-7.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1.4. Transformations with DSSSL
Once your system is configured (see the previous section), you should
be able to start using jade to transform your files from XML to
XHTML.
To create individual HTML files, point jade at the correct DSL (style
sheet). The following example uses the LDP style sheet.
bash$ jade -t xml -i html \
-d /usr/local/sgml/dsssl/docbook/html/ldp.dsl#html \
HOWTO.xml
If you would like to produce a single-file HTML page, add the -V
nochunks parameter. You can specify the name of the final HTML file
by appending the command with > output.html.
bash$ jade -t xml -i html -V nochunks \
-d /usr/local/sgml/dsssl/stylesheets/ldp.dsl#html \
HOWTO.sgml > output.html
Note Not a function name errors
If you get an error about "is not a function name", you will need to
add a pointer to xml.dcl. It has to be listed immediately before the
pointer to your XML document. Try one of the following locations:
/usr/lib/sgml/declaration/xml.dcl, or
/usr/share/sgml/declaration/xml.dcl. Use locate to find the file if
it is not in either of those two places. The modified command would
be as follows:
bash$ jade -t xml -i html \
-d /usr/local/sgml/dsssl/docbook/html/ldp.dsl#html \
/usr/lib/sgml/declaration/xml.dcl HOWTO.xml
If you would like to create print-friendly files instead of HTML
files, simply change the style sheet that you are using. In the file
name above, note "html/ldp.dsl" at the end. Change this to
"print/docbook.dsl", or if you want XHTML output, instead of HTML,
change the file name to "xhtml/docbook.dsl".
________________________________________________________________
B.4.1.4.1. Changing CSS Files
If you want your HTML files to use a specific CSS stylesheet, you
will need to edit ldp.dsl. Immediately after ;; End of
$verbatim-display$ redefinition add the following lines:
(define %stylesheet-type%
;; The type of the stylesheet to use
"text/css")
(define %stylesheet%
;; Name of the css stylesheet to use, use value #f if you don't want to
;; use css stylesheets
"base.css")
Replace base.css with the name of the CSS file you would like to use.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.2. The docbook-utils Package
The docbook-utils provide commands like db2html, db2pdf and db2ps,
based on the jw scripts, that is a front-end to Jade. These tools
ease the everyday management of documentation and add comfortable
features.
The package, originally created by RedHat and available from
[http://sources.redhat.com/docbook-tools/]
http://sources.redhat.com/docbook-tools/ can be installed on most
systems.
Example B-6. Example creating HTML output
After validating your document, simply issue the command db2html
mydoc.xml to create (a) HTML file(s). You can also use the
docbook-utils as validation tools. Remember: when errors occur,
always start by solving only the first problem. The rest of the
problems may be fixed when you fix the first error.
If you get errors about a function name, please read .
________________________________________________________________
B.4.2.1. Using CSS and DSL for pretty output
You can define your own additional DSL instructions, which can
include a pointer to a personalized CSS file. Sample DSL and CSS
files are provided in Appendix A.
The sample DSL file will create a table of contents, and have all
HTML files start with the prefix intro2linux- and end with a suffix
of .html. The %stylesheet% variable points to the CSS file which
should be called by your HTML file.
To use a specific DSL style sheet the following command should be
used:
db2html -d mystyle.dsl mydoc.xml
You can compare the result here:
[http://tille.xalasys.com/training/unix/]
http://tille.xalasys.com/training/unix/ is a book formatted with the
standard tools; [http://tille.xalasys.com/training/tldp/]
http://tille.xalasys.com/training/tldp/ is one using personalized DSL
and CSS files. Soft tones and special effects, for instance in
buttons, were used to achieve maximum effect.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.3. XSL
There are alternatives to DSSSL and Jade/OpenJade.
When working with DocBook XML, the LDP offers a series of XSL[2]
style sheets to process documents into HTML. These style sheets
create output files using the XML tool set that are similar to those
produced by the SGML tools using ldp.dsl.
The major difference between using ldp.dsl and the XSL style sheets
is the way that the generation of multiple files is handled, such as
the creation of a separate file for each chapter, section and
appendix. With the SGML tools, such as jade or openjade, the tool
itself was responsible for generating the separate files. Because of
this, only a single file, ldp.dsl was necessary as a customization
layer for the standard DocBook DSSSL style sheets.
With the DocBook XSL style sheets, generation of multiple files is
controlled by the style sheet. If you want to generate a single file,
you call one style sheet. If you want to generate multiple files, you
call a different style sheet. For that reason the LDP XSL style sheet
distribution is comprised of four files:
1. tldp-html.xsl - style sheet called to generate a single file.
2. tldp-html-chunk.xsl[3] - style sheet called to generate multiple
files based on chapter, section and appendix elements.
3. tldp-html-common.xsl - style sheet containing the actual XSLT
transformations. It is called by the other two HTML style sheets
and is never directly called.
4. tldp-print.xsl - style sheet for generation of XSL Formatting
Objects for print output.
You can find the latest copy of the files at
[http://my.core.com/~dhorton/docbook/tldp-xsl/]
http://my.core.com/~dhorton/docbook/tldp-xsl/. The package includes
installation instructions which are duplicated at
[http://my.core.com/~dhorton/docbook/tldp-xsl/doc/tldp-xsl-howto.html
]
http://my.core.com/~dhorton/docbook/tldp-xsl/doc/tldp-xsl-howto.html.
The short version of the install instructions is as follows: Download
and unzip the latest package from the web site. Take the files from
the html directory of TLDP-XSL and put them in the html directory of
Norman Walsh's stylesheets. Take the file from the TLDP-XSL fo
directory and put it in the Norman Walsh fo directory.
Once you have installed these files you can use xsltproc to generate
HTML files from your XML documents. To transform your XML file(s)
into a single-page HTML document use the following command:
bash$ xsltproc -o HOWTO.html /usr/local/sgml/stylesheets/tldp-html.xsl HOWTO.
xml
To generate a set of linked HTML pages, with a separate page for each
chapter, sect1 or appendix, use the following command:
bash$ xsltproc /usr/share/sgml/stylesheets/tldp-html-chunk.xsl HOWTO.xml
Note that you never directly call the style sheet
tldp-html-common.xsl. It is called by both of the other two style
sheets.
________________________________________________________________
B.4.3.1. Changing CSS Files
If you want your HTML files to use a specific CSS stylesheet, you
will need to edit tldp-html-common.xsl. Look for a line that
ressembles <xsl:param name="html.stylesheet" select="'style.css'"/>.
Replace style.css with the name of the CSS file you would like to
use.
________________________________________________________________
B.5. DocBook DTD
The DocBook DTD defines the structure of a DocBook document. It
contains rules about how the elements may be used; and what the
elements ought to be describing. For example: it is the DocBook DTD
which states all warnings are to warn the reader (this is the
definition of the element); and may not contain plain text (this is
the content model--and the bit which forces you to wrap your warning
text in a para or perhaps a list).
Caution Versions
It is important that you download the version(s) that match your
document. You may want to configure your system now to deal with
"all" DocBook DTDs if you are going to be editing older LDP
documents. If you are a new author, you only need the first one
listed: XML DTD for DocBook version 4.2.
The XML DTD is available from
[http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2]
http://www.oasis-open.org/xml/4.2/. The LDP prefers this version of
the DocBook DTD.
If you are going to be working with SGML versions of DocBook you will
need one (or both) of:
[http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/sgml/4.1/docbk41.zip]
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/sgml/4.1/docbk41.zip or
[http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/sgml/3.1/docbk31.zip]
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/sgml/3.1/docbk31.zip
Example B-7. "Installing" DocBook Document Type Definitions
Create a base directory to store everything such as /opt/local/sgml/.
Copy the DTDs into a sub-directory named dtd.
Warning Do not edit DTD files
The DocBook standard is described in these files. If you change these
files, you are no longer working with DocBook.
________________________________________________________________
B.6. Formatting Documents
B.6.1. Inserting a summary on the initial articles page
A feature that might be valuable in some cases is the insertion of
the summary on the initial page of an article. DocBook articles do
not include it as a standard feature.
To enable this, it is necessary to modify the style sheet file.
Example B-8. Style sheet to insert summaries in articles
<!DOCTYPE style-sheet PUBLIC "-//James Clark//DTD DSSSL Style Sheet//EN" [
<!entity html-docbook PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DOCUMENT DocBook HTML Styleshee
t//EN" CDATA DSSSL>
<!entity print-docbook PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DOCUMENT DocBook Print Stylesh
eet//EN" CDATA DSSSL>
]>
<style-sheet>
<style-specification use="html">
<style-specification-body>
; Includes a summary at the beginning of an item.
(define %generate-article-toc% #t)
</style-specification-body>
</style-specification>
<style-specification use="print">
<style-specification-body>
; Includes a summary at the beginning of an item.
(define %generate-article-toc% #t)
</style-specification-body>
</style-specification>
<external-specification id="html" document="html-docbook">
<external-specification id="print" document="print-docbook">
</style-sheet>
________________________________________________________________
B.6.2. Inserting indexes automatically
Although DocBook has markups for the composition of them, indexes are
not generated automatically. The collateindex.pl command allows
indexes to be generated from the source DocBook for inclusion into
the finished/transformed document.
1. Process the document with jade using the style to HTML with the
option -V html-index.
bash$ jade -t sgml \
-d html/docbook.dsl -V html-index document.sgml
2. Generate the index.sgml file with collateindex.pl.
bash$ perl collateindex.pl \
-o index.sgml HTML.index
For the above example to work, it is necessary to define an external
entity by calling the file index.sgml.
Example B-9. Configuring an external entity to include the index
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD
DocBook V3.1//EN" [
<!-- Insertion of the index --> <!entity index SYSTEM
"index.sgml"> ]>
See also Section D.4 for information on how to insert necessary
information on the text.
Note Odd behavior generating indexes for print versions
Remember that if you're trying to get Tables of Contents or Indexes
on PS or PDF output you'll need to run jadetex or pdfjadetex at least
three times. This is required by TeX but not by DocBook or related
applications.
________________________________________________________________
Appendix C. Concurrent Version System (CVS)
The LDP provides optional CVS access to its authors. This enables
collaborative writing and has the following positive effects:
1. CVS will keep an off-site backup of your documents. In the event
that you hand over a document to another author, they can just
retrieve the document from CVS and continue on. In the event you
need to go back to a previous version of a document, you can
retrieve it as well.
2. However difficult from an organizational point of view, it's
great to have multiple people working on the same document. CVS
enables you to do this. You can have CVS tell you what changes
were made by another author while you were editing your copy, and
integrate those changes.
3. CVS keeps a log of what changes were made. These logs (and a date
stamp) can be placed automatically inside your documents when
they are published.
4. CVS can be combined with scripts to automatically update the LDP
web site with new documentation as it's written and submitted.
This is not in place yet, but it is a goal. Currently, CVS
updates signal the HOWTO coordinator to update the LDP web page,
meaning that if you use CVS, you're not required to e-mail your
XML code. (Although you do still need to send the submit list an
email when you are ready for your document to be published,
because the whole publishing process has not been fully automated
yet.)
Note Access to our CVS repository
Only authors with at least three submissions get access to our CVS,
see Appendix C.
You can browse the LDP CVS repository via the web at
[http://cvs.tldp.org/] http://cvs.tldp.org/.
________________________________________________________________
C.1. Getting a CVS account
Caution CVS accounts will not be granted to all applicants
To be granted a CVS account you must qualify under one of the
following categories:
* authors with documents already in the collection who have made a
minimum of three submits to the LDP through <submit@en.tldp.org>
* technical and language reviewers approved by one of the Review
Coordinators
* new authors in the review process (also requires approval from
one of the Review Coordinators)
Please do not apply for a CVS account if you do not qualify.
If you qualify for a CVS account you may apply for one contacting CVS
master Sergiusz [mailto:ser@gnu.org] mailto:ser@gnu.org Include
information about which documents you maintain.
________________________________________________________________
C.2. Using CVS
C.2.1. Setting Up Your CVS Account
First you'll need to get an account at the LDP's CVS Repository.
Please see the notes above on obtaining an account. This repository
houses various documents including HOWTOs and Guides. Documents are
sorted by the type of document (for example a HOWTO or a Guide), and
by the markup language the document uses (for example DocBook or
LinuxDoc).
When your account is ready you can log in using one of the following
commands. In all instances your_userid should be replaced by the user
name you were issued in the response email. You will be prompted for
a password after this first step.
Initializing Your CVS Account
Linux system
cvs -d :pserver:your_userid@cvs.tldp.org:/cvsroot login
Windows system
set CVSROOT=":pserver:your_userid@cvs.tldp.org:/cvsroot"
cvs -d %CVSROOT% login
Wait patiently while the system tries to log you in. It can often
take more that 10-20 seconds for the system to either accept (or
reject) your password. Once you've used cvs login for the first time
and have been given access to the system, your password is stored in
.cvspass and you will not have to use cvs login again. Just set the
CVSROOT with the export command listed above and continue on. If
TLDP's CVS server is the only one you work with, you might also add
an export CVSROOT line to your ~/.bashrc shell configuration file.
________________________________________________________________
C.2.2. Getting the Documents
You can get the entire repository (about 150 MB) with: cvs checkout
LDP
Or you can get the source for your own document with: cvs checkout
LDP/howto/docbook/YOUR-HOWTO.xml OR cvs checkout
LDP/guide/docbook/YOURGUIDE
Windows users will need to use a modified version of this command.
Instead they should use: cvs -d %CVSROOT% checkout
LDP/howto/docbook/YOUR-HOWTO.xml
Note Keep an overview
checkout will add the full directory structure from tldp.org on down.
Although it doesn't really matter where you put these files on your
local file system you may not want to bury the directories too
deeply.
________________________________________________________________
C.2.3. CVS Commands
CVS Commands: a brief reminder
commit
This CVS command will upload your changes to the CVS server.
Please be sure to include a useful description of the changes
that have been made to your document.
If you want to bypass the editor screen you can use
cvs commit -m "A description of the work done on this version
of the document."
Note Ready for publication warning
You must still email <submit@en.tldp.org> when you are ready to have
your changes appear on the live site. Your email should include the
relative path to the file(s) in the LDP CVS tree that you wish to
update.
add
You can add new files to your CVS repository. These may be
image files or additional XML files. First check that your
HOWTO is in its own directory. You may want to coordinate with
the people at <submit@en.tldp.org> to ensure you can add
graphics or other files to your HOWTO.
Copy the files you want to add into your local CVS repository
(where all of your downloaded/working files are). Then:
cvs add filename
After you've added the files, you still need to commit them to
the repository (see above).
remove
$Id: cvs.xml,v 1.32 2011/01/14 16:24:52 serek Exp $
While this is not a CVS "command" it can be used to
automatically insert information about the file including the
time and date it was last modified, the version number it was
assigned by the CVS and the filename of this particular file.
The output will look like this: $Id: cvs.xml,v 1.9 2002/04/21
09:44:26 serek Exp $
If you need to change a file name, you still need to use the add
command. First remove the copy of the file from your local disk. Then
remove it from the CVS tree with: cvs remove filename. As with the
add command, you need to >commit your removed file. Finally, now that
the old file has been removed, add your new file using the
instructions above (first add and then commit the additional file).
________________________________________________________________
C.2.3.1. Recovering old versions
There you are, typing away, when you screw up. Real bad. Doesn't
matter what it is, but suffice it to say that you've toasted not only
the version on your local drive, but created a new version on the CVS
server. What you need to do is go back in time and resurrect an older
version of your file.
To do this, you'll need to know the version number of the file you
want to retrieve. cvs diff will give a list of revisions if there are
differences. You can pick the revision number, subtract one, and that
is probably the revision you want to look at.
The command
cvs -Q update -p -r revision filename
will output to stdout the contents of the revision version of
filename. You can pipe it to more or redirect the output to a file.
Conveniently, you can redirect stdout to a file called filename. Your
local file is now the revision you want, and
cvs update
will update the CVS server with the new (old) version of filename.
________________________________________________________________
C.3. CVS Resources
If you're completely new to CVS, there are a few web pages you may
want to look at which can help you out:
* [http://cvshome.org/docs/blandy.html]
http://cvshome.org/docs/blandy.html
* [http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html]
http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs/doc/cvs_toc.html
________________________________________________________________
Appendix D. DocBook: Sample Markup
D.1. General Tips and Tricks
For a general overview of what markup is all about, please read
Chapter 5
* An editor capable of inserting elements according to the DTD will
help a lot since it will enforce the DTD. This way you can be
sure that no invalid elements were added anywhere in your
document.
* In order to ensure that future changes are as easy as possible,
authors should try to keep compatibility with the XML version of
the DocBook DTD. This means keeping element names in lower case,
using double quotes in all attributes, and not omitting end tags.
Most tools that automatically insert elements (like psgml+emacs)
follow these rules automatically or with some fine tuning.
* Each type of document created has a specific structure. This
document is in "book" format. Most authors, however, will want to
use the shorter "article" format instead. Templates are available
from Appendix A.
________________________________________________________________
D.1.1. Useful markup
Table D-1 shows some markup that is useful for generating generic
documents. Remember that some elements are valid only on some
contexts.
Tip Check several formats
Sometimes the appearance of a particular tag changes from one
conversion format to another. As a beginner in DocBook writing, you
may wish to see how your document looks in several formats before you
publish them. You are advised to look at how your document is
presented in HTML, PDF and PostScript, since these formats will be
made available by TLDP once you publish your document.
Note Better too much than not enough
Since the formatting depends on the output style chosen, it's
recommended to use as much markup as possible. Even if the appearance
of the output doesn't seem to change with the standard output style,
there may be specific output formats that will make these tags stand
out.
Table D-1. Useful markup
Description Sample markup Result
E-mail address <email>address@domain</email> <address@domain>
About the author <author>...</author> (see example below)
Author's name
<firstname>Mary</firstname>
<othername>Margaret</othername>
<surname>O'Hara</surname>
Mary Margaret O'Hara
Keys' name (printings on the keyboard) <keycap>F1</keycap> F1
Symbol represented by the keys <keysym>KEY_F1</keysym> KEY_F1
Key's code <keycode>0x3B</keycode> 0x3B
Combinations or sequences of keys
<keycombo>
<keycap>Ctrl</keycap>
<keycap>S</keycap>
</keycombo>
Ctrl-S
Program Menus <guimenu>File</guimenu> File
Menu Items <guimenuitem>Save</guimenuitem> Save
Menu Sequences
<menuchoice>
<shortcut>
<keycombo>
<keycap>Ctrl</keycap>
<keycap>S</keycap>
</keycombo>
</shortcut>
<guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Save</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
File->Save (Ctrl-S)
Mouse Button <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> left
Application Names <application>application</application> application
Text Bibliographical Reference <citation>reference</citation>
[reference]
Quote
<blockquote>
<attribution>Text Author</attribution>
<para>Quote Text.</para>
</blockquote>
Quote Text.
--Text Author
Index (NA) See Section D.4.
File Names
<filename>file</filename>
file
Directories
<filename id="directory">directory</filename>
directory/
Emphasize Text[a]
<emphasis>text</emphasis>
text
Footnotes
<footnote>
<para>Footnote text</para>
</footnote>
(See note at the end of this table for an example)
URLs
<ulink url="http://www.conectiva.com">Conectiva S.A.</>
[http://www.conectiva.com] Conectiva S.A.
Itemized (unnumbered) List
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>item</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>item</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
* item
* item
Ordered (numbered) List
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>item</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>item</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
1. item
2. item
Segmented List
<segmentedlist>
<title>Binary to decimal conversion</title>
<segtitle>Binary</segtitle>
<segtitle>Decimal</segtitle>
</seglistitem><seg>00</seg><seg>0</seg>
</seglistitem>
<seglistitem><seg>01</seg><seg>1</seg>
</seglistitem>
<seglistitem><seg>10</seg><seg>2</seg>
</seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>
Binary to Decimal Conversion
Binary: 00
Decimal: 0
Binary: 01
Decimal: 1
Binary: 10
Decimal: 2
Variable List
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Entry 1</term>
<listitem>
<para>Description</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Entry 2</term>
<listitem>
<para>Description</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
Entry 1
Description
Entry 2
Description
Simple Lists
<simplelist type="horiz" columns="3">
<member>1</member>
<member>2</member>
<member>3</member>
<member>4</member>
<member>5</member>
<member>6</member>
</simplelist>
<simplelist type="inline">
<member>A</member>
<member>B</member>
<member>C</member>
<member>D</member>
<member>E</member>
<member>F</member>
</simplelist>
1 2 3
4 5 6
A, B, C, D, E, F
Pictures (NA) See Section D.5
Glossary
<glossentry>
<glossterm>Term</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Definition</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
(See the glossary at the end of this document)
Crossed References
<section id="secao">
...
</section>
<section id="reference the other section">
...
<para>Please, see<xref linkend="secao" /> for more information.
(NA)
Notes:
a. Text can be emphasized in a few ways. The most common ways are
italics and bold. DocBook, however, supports only italics. The use of
bold requires additional settings on the style sheet used.
________________________________________________________________
D.2. <section> and <sectN>: what's the difference?
Note Acknowledgment
These notes were provided by: [http://geekhavoc.com] John Daily and
Saqib Ali (<saqib@seagate.com>).
<section> versus <sectN> is largely a question of flexibility. The
stylesheets can make a <section> in a <section> look just like a
<sect2> within a <sect1>, so there's no output advantage.
But, a <section> within a <section> can be extracted into its own
top-level section, nested even more deeply, or moved to an entirely
different part of the document, without it and its own <section>
children being renamed. That is not true of the numbered section
tags, which are very sensitive to rearrangements. This can be easier
for authors who are new to DocBook than using <sectN>.
The main idea behind creating structured data is that it should be
easy to access and query. One should be able to retrieve a subsection
of any structured data, by using querying languages for XML (XPath
and XQuery). <sectN> are useful when traversing a document using
XPath/XQuery. <sectN> gives more flexibility, and control while
writing an XPath expression.
A well-defined, valid and well-structured document makes it easier
for one to write XPath/Query to retreive "specific" data from a
document. For example you can use XPath to retrieve information in
the <sect3> block with certain attributes. However if you just used
<section> for all subsections, it becomes harder to retrieve the
block of information that you need.
So which one should you use? The one you feel most comfortable with
is a good place to start. This document is written with <section>s.
You may, or may not, think this is a good idea. :)
________________________________________________________________
D.3. Command Prompts
There are likely as many ways of doing this as there are DocBook
authors; however, here are two ways that you might find useful.
Thanks to [http://www.appaji.net/] Y Giridhar Appaji Nag and
[http://linux-ip.net/] Martin Brown for the markup used here.
Example D-1. Command Prompt with programlisting
<programlisting>
<prompt># </prompt><userinput><command>cd</command> /some/dir</userinp
ut>
<prompt># </prompt><userinput><command>ls</command> -l</userinput>
</programlisting>
Displays as:
# cd /some/dir
# ls -l
Example D-2. Command Prompt with screen
First create a general entity in the internal subset at the very
beginning of your document. This entity will define a name for the
shortcut which you can use to display the full prompt at any point in
your document. <!ENTITY prompt "<prompt>[user@machine
~/dir]$</prompt>">
For more information about entities, read Section D.8.
<screen>
&prompt; <userinput>cd /some/dir</userinput>
&prompt; <userinput>ls -l</userinput> </screen>
Displays as:
[user@machine ~/dir]$ cd /some/dir
[user@machine ~/dir]$ ls -l
If you would like to add the output of your commands you can add
<computeroutput> text</computeroutput> within the <screen> or
<programlisting> as appropriate.
________________________________________________________________
D.4. Encoding Indexes
The generation of indexes depends on the markups inserted in the
text.
Such markups will be processed afterwards by an external tool and
will generate the index. An example of such a tool is the
collateindex.pl script (see Section B.6.2). Details about the process
used to generate these indexes are shown in Section B.6.2.
The indexes have nesting levels. The markup of an index is done by
the code Example D-3.
Example D-3. Code for the generation of an index
<indexterm>
<primary>Main level</primary>
<secondary>Second level</secondary>
<tertiary>Third level</tertiary>
</indexterm>
It is possible to refer to chapters, sections, and other parts of the
document using the attribute zone.
Example D-4. Use of the attribute zone
<section id="encoding-index">
<title>Encoding Indexes</title>
<indexterm zone="encoding-index">
<primary>edition</primary> <secondary>index</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>
The generation of indexes depend on the inserted markups on the text.
</para>
The Example D-4 has the code used to generate the entry of this
edition on the index. In fact, since the attribute zone is used, the
index statement could be located anywhere in the document or even in
a separate file.
However, to facilitate maintenance the entries for the index were all
placed after the text to which it refers.
Example D-5. Usage of values startofrange and endofrange on the
attributeclass
<para>Typing the text normally
sometimes there's the need of
<indexterm class="startofrange"
id="example-band-index">
<primary>examples</primary> <secondary>index</secondary>
</indexterm> mark large amounts of
text.</para>
<para>Keep inserting the paragraphs
normally.</para>
<para>Until the end of the section
intended to be indexed. <indexterm
startref="example-band-index" class="endofrange">.
</para>
________________________________________________________________
D.5. Inserting Pictures
It is necessary to insert pictures formats for all possible finished
document types. For example: JPG files for web pages and EPS for
PostScript and PDF files.
If you use the TeX format you'll need the images as a PostScript
file. For on-line publishing you can use any kind of common image
file, such as JPG, GIF or PNG.
The easiest way to insert pictures is to use the fileref attribute.
Usually pictures are generated in JPG and in PostScript (PS or EPS).
Example D-6. Inserting a picture
<figure>
<title>Picture's
Title</title> <graphic fileref="images/file"></graphic>
</figure>
Replacing <figure> by <informalfigure> eliminates the need to insert
a title for the picture.
There's still the float attribute on which the value 0 indicates that
the picture should be placed exactly where the tag appears. The value
1 allows the picture to be moved to a more convenient location (this
location can be described on the style sheet, or it can be controlled
by the application).
________________________________________________________________
D.5.1. Graphics formats
When submitting graphics to the LDP, please submit one set of
graphics in .eps, and another in .gif, .jpg or .png. The preferred
format is .png or .jpg due to patent problems with .gif.
You can use .jpg files for continuous-tone images such as photos or
images with gradual changes in color. Use .png for simple images like
diagrams, some screen shots, and images with a low number of colors.
________________________________________________________________
D.5.2. Alternative Methods
The first alternative to Example D-6 is to eliminate the <figure> or
<informalfigure> elements.
Another interesting alternative when you have decided to publish the
text on media where pictures are not accepted, is the use of a
wrapper, <imageobject>.
Example D-7. Using <imageobject>
<figure>
<title>Title</title>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="images/file.eps" format="EPS">
</imageobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="images/file.jpg" format="JPG">
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>Here there's an image of this example</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption>
<para>Image Description. Optional. </para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</figure>
Files using the following formats are available BMP, CGM-BINARY,
CGM-CHAR, CGM-CLEAR, DITROFF, DVI, EPS, EQN, FAX, GIF, GIF87A,
GIF89A, IGES, JPEG, JPG, LINESPECIFIC, PCX, PIC, PS, SGML, TBL, TEX,
TIFF, WMF, WPG.
This method presents an advantage: a better control of the
application. The elements <imageobject> are consecutively tested
until one of them is accepted. If the output format does not support
images the <textobject> element will be used. However, the biggest
advantage in usage of the format Example D-7 is that in DocBook 5.0,
the <graphic> element will cease to exist.
As a disadvantage, there is the need for more than one representation
code of the same information. It is up to the author to decide how
they will implement illustrations and pictures in the document, but
for compatibility with future versions I recommend the use of this
method for pictures and graphics.
Warning Title page exception
<mediaobject>s will not display if they are used on a title page. For
more information read:
[http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HtmlCustomEx.html#HTMLTitlePage]
http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HtmlCustomEx.html#HTMLTitlePage
Note ASCII Images
You may also want to try converting your image to an ASCII
representation of the file. JavE (Java ASCII Versatile Editor) can do
this conversion for you. It can be downloaded from
[http://www.jave.de/] http://www.jave.de/. It has an easy to use GUI
interface.
If you're more command-line oriented you may want to try: tgif
([http://bourbon.usc.edu:8001/tgif/]
http://bourbon.usc.edu:8001/tgif/) and AA-Lib
([http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/]
http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/).
________________________________________________________________
D.6. Markup for Metadata
D.6.1. Crediting Translators, Converters and Co-authors
There are several ways that these folks, as well as other
contributors to your document, can be given some recognition for the
help they've given you.
________________________________________________________________
D.6.1.1. <othercredit>
All translators, converters and co-authors should be credited with an
<othercredit> tag entry. To properly credit a translator or
converter, use the <othercredit> tag with the role attribute set to
"converter" or "translator", as indicated in the example below:
Example D-8. Other Credit
<othercredit role='converter'>
<firstname>David</firstname>
<surname>Merrill</surname>
<contrib>Conversion from HTML to DocBook v3.1 (SGML).</contrib>
</othercredit>
________________________________________________________________
D.6.1.2. Crediting Editors and Reviewers
To help track the review process all new documents must include a
reference to the reviewers for the
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/techreview.html]
technical,
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/languagereview.html]
language and
[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LDP-Reviewer-HOWTO/metadatareview.html]
metadata reviews.
Example D-9. Editor
<editor>
<firstname>Tabatha</firstname>
<surname>Marshall</surname>
<contrib>Language review of version 0.8</contrib>
</editor>
________________________________________________________________
D.6.2. <revremark>s
Within the <revision> tag hierarchy is a tag called <revremark>.
Within this tag, you can make any brief notes you wish about each
particular revision of your document.
________________________________________________________________
D.6.3. Revision History
The <revhistory> tag should be used to denote the various revisions
of the document. Specify the date, revision number and comments
regarding what has changed.
Revisions should be listed with the most-recent version at the top
(list in descending order).
________________________________________________________________
D.6.4. Date formats
The <pubdate> tag in your header should list the publication date of
this particular version of the document (coincide with the revision
date). It should be in the following format:
<pubdate>2002-04-25</pubdate>
The date is in the format YYYY-MM-DD, which is one of the
[http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime] ISO 8601 standard formats for
representing dates. For you Yanks out there (me too), think of it as
going from the largest unit of time to the smallest.
________________________________________________________________
D.6.5. Sample Article (or Book) Information Element
Here is a sample of a complete DocBook (SGML or XML) <articleinfo>
element which contains some of the items and constructs previously
described.
Example D-10. Sample Meta Data
<!--
Above these lines in a typical DocBook article would be the article
element (the immediate parent of the articleinfo element) and above
that typically, the DOCTYPE declaration and internal subset.
-->
<articleinfo>
<!--
Use "HOWTO", "mini HOWTO", "FAQ" in title, if appropriate
-->
<title>Sample HOWTO</title>
<author>
<firstname>Your Firstname</firstname>
<surname>Your Surname</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>your email</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<editor>
<firstname>Tabatha</firstname>
<surname>Marshall</surname>
<contrib>Language review of version 0.8</contrib>
</editor>
<othercredit role='converter'>
<firstname>David</firstname>
<surname>Merrill</surname>
<contrib>Conversion from HTML to DocBook v3.1 (SGML).</contrib>
</othercredit>
<pubdate>YYYY-MM-DD</pubdate>
<revhistory>
<revision>
<revnumber>1.0</revnumber>
<date>YYYY-MM-DD</date>
<authorinitials>ABC</authorinitials>
</revremark>first official release</revremark>
</revision>
<revision>
<revnumber>0.9</revnumber>
<date>YYYY-MM-DD</date>
<authorinitials>ABC</authorinitials>
<revremark>First draft</revremark>
</revision>
</revhistory>
<!--
Provide a good abstract; a couple of sentences is sufficient
-->
<abstract>
<para>
This is a sample DocBook (SGML or XML) HOWTO which has been
constructed to serve as a template.
</para>
</abstract>
</articleinfo>
________________________________________________________________
D.7. Bibliographies
Not everyone will choose to use the correct formatting for a
bibliography. Most will use a list of some kind. And that's ok. But
when you're ready to move to the next level, here's how to do it.
Below are two examples of bibliographic entries. The first is a very
simple entry. It has only a title, URL and possibly a short
description (abstract). The second is a little more complex and is
for a full entry (for instance a book) with an ISBN, publisher and
copyright date.
Note DocBook requirements for bibliographic references
At least one element within <biblioentry> is required, but it doesn't
matter which one you have. So you might have a <title>, or a URL
(<bibliosource>), or an <author>, or, ...
For a full list of all options, visit
[http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/biblioentry.html]
http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/biblioentry.html. For more examples
visit [http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/bibliography.html]
http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/bibliography.html.
Caution Displaying <abstract> content
By default <abstract>s do not display on web pages. You need to
modify the biblio.xsl file. Do a search for the word "abstract" and
then add this information inside the <xsl:template> tags. If that
doesn't make sense, don't worry about it too much, but do be aware
that it's required for the abstracts to show up.
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="{name(.)}">
<xsl:apply-templates mode="bibliography.mode"/>
</div>
Example D-11. A Bibliography
<bibliography>
<title>Bibliography title</title>
<bibliodiv>
<title>Section title</title>
<biblioentry>
<title>Book or Web Site Title</title>
<bibliosource><ulink url=""/></bibliosource>
<abstract></abstract>
</biblioentry>
<biblioentry>
<title></title>
<bibliosource><ulink url=""/></bibliosource>
<author><firstname></firstname><surname></surname></author>
<copyright><year></year>
<holder></holder></copyright>
<editor><firstname></firstname><surname></surname></editor>
<isbn></isbn>
<publisher>
<publishername></publishername>
</publisher>
<abstract></abstract>
</biblioentry>
</bibliodiv>
</bibliography>
View References to see this in action.
________________________________________________________________
D.8. Entities (shortcuts, text macros and re-usable text)
There may be some segments of text, or markup that you want to use
over and over again. Instead of typing it up multiple times (and then
having to edit it multiple times if you want to make a change) you
can use external entities. Entities can give you a short cut to:
re-using whole documents, text snippets, and special markup. Some
common ways to use an entity would be for:
* text macros for markup. An example would be a company URL. By
using a parameter entity you could refer simply to
&my-company-url; instead of typing out the full <ulink
url="http://foo.bar">Foo.bar</ulink> each time.
* software license. Such as the GNU Free Documentation License: it
is long. And must be included in full in each document. By
leaving the license in a separate file you can easily include it
in many documents without having to redo the markup each time.
* repeated text. For instance an introduction to a topic which is
included both as a summary in one section and as an introduction
to the full information in another. Saves on editing time if you
need to make changes to both sets of text.
Example D-12. Adding Entities
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
<-- I can add comments here -->
<!ENTITY shortcut "Replace 'shortcut' with this text.">
<!ENTITY sc-to-a-file SYSTEM "anotherfile.xml">
<-- note: the square bracket on the third line is closed on the next
line--> ]>
To use these entities simply insert the name you gave the entity
between a "&" (ampersand) and a ";" (semicolon). For example:
"&shortcut;" would expand into "Replace 'shortcut' with this text";
"&sc-to-a-file;" would include the full contents of whatever is in
anotherfile.xml.
An important feature while writing a text is the ability to check
whether or not it will be presented in the final draft. It is common
to have several parts of the text marked as draft, especially when
updating an already existing document.
With the use of parameter entities, you can include or eliminate
these drafts by altering only one line at the beginning of a
document.
Example D-13. Use of parameter entities
<!ENTITY % review "INCLUDE"> ...
<![%review;[ <para>This paragraph will
be included on the draft when the entity "review" is defined with the
value "INCLUDE". </para> ]]>
The entity review might have several texts defined, as in Example
D-13. When the changes to the text are considered final, you need
only to remove parts of the text between the 3^rd. and 6^th. lines.
To keep the draft definitions and hide the text in the final draft,
just alter the specification of the entity from INCLUDE to IGNORE.
________________________________________________________________
D.9. Customizing your HTML files
D.9.1. HTML file names
By default, when separate HTML files are made, the SGML processor
will assign arbitrary names to the resulting files. This can be
confusing to readers who may bookmark a page only to have it change.
Whatever your reasoning, here's how to make separate files named the
way you want:
In your first <article> tag (which should be the only one) include an
id parameter and call it "index". This will make your tag look like
this:
<article id="index">
Do not modify the first <chapter> tag, as it's usually an
introduction and you want that on the first page. For each other
<section> tag, include the id parameter and name it. A name should
include only alphanumeric characters, and it should be short enough
to understand what it is.
<chapter id="tips">
Note Pick section IDs intelligently
We all know that Cool URIs Don't Change. This means your ids should
not change either. Unless of course the content for the id has
changed substantially and the id name is no longer relevant.
Warning HTML file name generation using Jade
If you are using Jade to transform your DocBook into HTML you must
use the following parameter: -V %use-id-as-filename%.
________________________________________________________________
D.9.2. Headers and Footers
There is no "easy" way to add headers and footers to your document.
If you are using DocBook XSL and doing your own document
transformations you may customize the XSL template to suit your
needs. For more information read
[http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HTMLHeaders.html]
http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HTMLHeaders.html.
________________________________________________________________
Appendix E. Converting Documents to DocBook XML
A variety of free and commercial tools exist for doing "up
conversion" of non-XML formats to DocBook. A few are listed here for
your convenience. A more comprehensive list is available from
[http://wiki.docbook.org/topic/ConvertOtherFormatsToDocBook] Convert
Other Formats to DocBook.
________________________________________________________________
E.1. Text to DocBook
The txt2docbook tool allows one to convert a ascii (README-like) file
to a valid docbook xml document. It simplifies the publishing of
rather small papers significantly. The input format was inspired by
the APT-Convert tool from [http://www.xmlmind.com/aptconvert.html]
http://www.xmlmind.com/aptconvert.html.
The script can be downloaded from
[http://txt2docbook.sourceforge.net/]
http://txt2docbook.sourceforge.net/.
________________________________________________________________
E.2. OpenOffice.org to DocBook
As of [http://www.openoffice.org] OpenOffice.org (OOo) 1.1RC there
has been support for exporting files to DocBook format.
Although OOo uses the full DocBook document type declaration, it does
not actually export the full list of DocBook elements. It uses a
"simplified" DocBook tag set which is geared to on-the-fly rendering.
(Although it is not the official Simplified DocBook which is
described in Section B.5.) The OpenOffice simplified (or "special"
docbook) is available from [http://www.chez.com/ebellot/ooo2sdbk/]
http://www.chez.com/ebellot/ooo2sdbk/.
________________________________________________________________
E.2.1. Open Office 1.0.x
OOo has been tested by LDP volunteers with mostly positive results.
Thanks to Charles Curley ([http://www.charlescurley.com]
charlescurley.com) for the following notes on using OOo version
1.0.x:
Note Check the version of your OpenOffice
These notes may not apply to the version of OOo you are using.
* To be able to export to DocBook, you must have a Java runtime
environment (JRE) installed and registered with OOo--a minimum of
version 4.2.x is recommended. The configuration instructions will
depend on how you installed your JRE. Visit the OOo web site for
help with your setup.
Contrary to the OOo documentation, the Linux OOo did not come
with a JRE. I got one from Sun.
* The exported file has lots of empty lines. My 54 line exported
file had 5 lines of actual XML code.
* There was no effort at pretty printing.
* The header is: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE
article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
* The pull-down menu in the File->Save As dialog box for file
format indicates that the export format is "DocBook
(simplified)." There is no explanation of what that "simplified"
indicates. Does OOo export a subset of DocBook? If so, which
elements are ignored? Is there any way to enter any of them
manually?
* There is NO documentation on the DocBook export filter or whether
OOo will import it again.
Conclusions: OOo 1.1RC is worth looking at if you want a word
processor for preparing DocBook documents.
However, I hope they cure the lack of documentation. For one thing,
it would be nice to know which native OOo styles map to which DocBook
elements. It would also be nice to know how to map one's own OOo
styles to DocBook elements.
________________________________________________________________
E.2.2. Open Office 1.1
[http://www.merlinmonroe.com] Tabatha Marshall offers the following
additional information for OOo 1.1.
The first problem was when I tried to do everything on version
1.0.1. That was obviously a problem. I have RH8, and it was
installed via rpm packages, so I ripped it out and did a full, new
install of OpenOffice 1.1. It took a while to find out 1.1 was a
requirement for XML to work.
During the install process I believe I was offered the choice to
install the XML features. I have a tendency to do full installs of
my office programs, so I selected everything.
I can't offer any advice to those trying to update their current
OO 1.1. Their "3 ways" aren't documented very well at the site
([http://xml.openoffice.org] xml.openoffice.org) and as of this
writing, I can't even find THAT on their site anymore. I think
more current documentation is needed there to walk people through
the process. Most of this was unclear and I had to pretty much
experiment to get things working.
Well, after I installed everything I had some configuration to do.
I opened the application, and got started by opening a new file,
choosing templates, then selecting the DocBook template. A nice
menu of Paragraph Styles popped up for me, which are the names for
all those tags, I noticed (you can see I don't use WYSIWYG often).
With a blank doc before me (couldn't get to the XML Filter
Settings menu unless some type of doc was opened), I went into
Tools->XML Filter Settings, and edited the entry for DocBook file.
I configured mine as follows:
* Doctype -//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN
* DTD http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd
* XSLT for export
/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/share/xslt/docbook/ldp-html.xsl
* XSLT for import
/usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.1.0/share/xslt/docbook/docbooktosoffhe
adings.xsl (this is the default)
* Template for import
/home/tabatha/OpenOffice/user/template/DocBook
File/DocBookTemplate.stw
At first, if I opened an XML file that had even one parsing error,
it would just open the file anyway and display the markup in OO. I
have many XML files that use &copy; and other types of entities
which show up as parse errors (depending on the encoding) even
though they can be processed through. But today I was unable to
open any of those files. I got input/output errors instead. Still
investigating that one.
However when you do successfully open a document (one parsing with
no errors), it puts it automatically into WYSIWYG based on the
markup, and you can then work from the paragraph styles menu like
any other such editor.
To validate the document, I used Tools->XML Filter Settings, then
clicked the Test XSLTs button. On my screen, I set up the XSLT for
export to be ldp-html.xsl. If you test and there are errors, a new
window pops up with error messages at the bottom, and the lines
that need to be changed up at the top. You can change them there
and progress through the errors until they're all gone, and keep
testing until they're gone.
If you want to open a file to see the source instead of the
processed results, go to Tools->XML Filter Settings->Test XSLTs,
and then under the Import section, check the Display Source box.
My import XSLT is currently docbooktosoffheadings.xsl (the
default) and the template for import is DocBookTemplate.stw (also
default).
I think this might work for some people, but unfortunately not for
me. I've never used WYSIWYG to edit markup. Emacs with PSGML can
tell me what my next tag is no matter where I am, validate by
moving through the trouble spots, and I can parse and process from
command line.
With OpenOffice, you have to visit
[http://xml.openoffice.org/filters.html]
http://xml.openoffice.org/filters.html to find conversion tools.
________________________________________________________________
E.3. Microsoft Word to DocBook
Even if you want to use MS Word to write your documents, you may find
[http://www.docsoft.com/w2xmlv2.htm] w2XML useful. Note that this is
not free software--the cost is around $130USD. There is, however, a
trial version of the software.
________________________________________________________________
E.4. LaTeX to DocBook
Siep Kroonenberg reports that there is a package tex4ht
[http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/]
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~gurari/TeX4ht/ that converts TeX and
LaTeX to various flavors of XML. Currently, its support for DocBook
output is limited. If you want to use tex4ht in its current state for
LDP you will probably have to hack your LaTeX source beforehand and
the generated XML afterwords.
________________________________________________________________
E.5. LyX to DocBook
This section is contributed by Chris Karakas.
You can use the LyX-to-X package to write your document conveniently
in LyX (a visual editor originally developped as a graphical frontend
to LaTeX), then export it to DocBook SGML and submit it to The LDP.
This method is presented by [http://www.karakas-online.de] Chris
Karakas Document processing with LyX and SGML.
In the LyX-to-X project, LyX is used as a comfortable graphical SGML
editor. Once the document is exported to SGML from LyX, it undergoes
a series of transformations through sed and awk scripts that correct
the SGML code, computes the Index, inserts the Bibliography and the
Appendix and takes care of the correct invocation of openjade,
pdftex, pdfjadetex and all the other necessary programs for the
generation of HTML (chunked or not), PDF (with images, bookmarks,
thumbnails and hyperlinks), PS, RTF and TXT versions.
All aspects of document processing are handled, including automatic
Index generation, display of Mathematics in TeX quality both online
and in print formats, as well as the use of bibliographic databases
with [http://refdb.sourceforge.net/] RefDB. Special care is taken so
that the document processing is as transparent to the user as
possible - the aim being that the user writes in LyX, then presses a
button, and the LyX-to-X script does the rest. Download the
documentation and the LyX-to-X package from the
[http://www.karakas-online.de/mySGML/formats.html] Formats section.
________________________________________________________________
E.6. DocBook to DocBook Transformations
E.6.1. XML and SGML DocBook
There are a few changes between DocBook XML and SGML. Handling these
differences should be relatively easy for most small documents, and
many authors will not need to make any changes to convert their
documents other than the XML and DocBook declarations at the start of
their document.
For others, here is a list of what you should keep in mind when
converting your documents from SGML to XML.
Note Differences between XML and SGML elements
An XML element typically has three parts: the start tag, the content
(your words) and the end tag. Qualifiers are added in the start tag
and are known as attributes. They will always have a name and a
quoted value.
<filename class="directory">/usr/local<filename>
The start tag contains one attribute (class) with a value of
"directory". The end tag (also filename) must not contain any
attributes.
* Element names (tags) and their attributes are
case-dependent--typically lowercase. The following will not
validate because the end tag <PARA> is uppercase:
<para>This part will fail XML validation</PARA>
* All attributes in the start tag must be "quoted". This can be
either single (') or double (") quotes, but not reverse (`) or
"smart quotes". The quote used to start a name="value" pair must
be the same quote used at the end of the value. In other words:
"this" would validate, but 'that" would not.
* Tags that have a start tag, but no end tag are referred to as
"empty" because they do not contain (wrap around) anything. These
tags must still be closed with a trailing slash (/). For example:
xref must be written as <xref linkend="software"/>. You may not
have any spaces between the / and >. (Although you may have a
space after the final attribute: <xref linkend="foo" />.)
* Processing instructions that get sent to the transformation
engine (DSSSL or XSLT) and must have a question mark at the end
of the tag. All processing instructions are removed from the
output stream. The XML version of this tag would look like this:
<?dbhtml filename="foo"?>
* If you're converting from SGML to XML, be sure file names refer
to .xml files instead of .sgml. Some tools may get confused if a
.sgml file contains XML.
* Tag minimizations were used in SGML instead of writing out the
element name in the end tag. Example: <para>This is foo.</> Tag
minimizations are not supported in XML and their use is
discouraged in DocBook.
________________________________________________________________
E.6.2. Changing DTDs
The significant changes between version changes in the DTD involve
changes to the elements (tags). Elements may be: deprecated (which
means they will be removed in future versions); removed; modified; or
added. Almost all authors will run into a changed or deprecated tag
when going from a lower version of DocBook to a higher version.
DocBook: The Definitive Guide does an excellent job of showing you
how elements fit together. For each element it tells you what an
element must contain (its content model) and what is may be contained
in (who its parents are). For example: a note must contain a para. If
you try to write <note>Content in a note</note> your document will
not validate. Learning how elements are assembled will make it a lot
easier to understand any validation errors that are thrown at you. If
you get truly stuck you can also email the LDP's docbook mailing list
for extra hints. Information on subscribing is available from Section
2.2
All tags that have been deprecated or changed for 4.x are listed in
DocBook: The definitive guide, published by O'Reilly and Associates.
This book is also available on-line from [http://www.docbook.org]
http://www.docbook.org.
________________________________________________________________
E.6.2.1. Differences between version 3.x and 4.x
Here are a few elements that are of particular relevance to LDP
authors:
* artheader. has been changed to articleinfo. Most other header
elements have been renamed to info.
* graphic. has been deprecated and will be removed as of DocBook
5.x. To prepare for this, start using mediaobject. There is more
information about mediaobject in Section D.5.
* imagedata. file formats must now be written in UPPERCASE letters.
If you use lowercase or mixed-case spellings for your file
formats, it will fail.
Valid:
<imagedata format="EPS" fileref="foo.eps">
Invalid:
<imagedata format="eps" fileref="foo.eps">
Glossary
Abiword
Open Source word processor.
aspell
Spell check program.
attribute
An attribute makes available extra information regarding the
element on which it appears. The attributes always appear as a
name-value pair on the initialization pointers (i.e. the
"start tag"). Example of an attribute is id="identification",
which gives the attribute id the value identification.
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
Set of overlay rules that are read by your HTML browser, which
uses these rules for doing the display, layout and formatting
of the XML-generated HTML file(s). CSS allows for fast changes
in look and feel without having to plunge in the HTML file(s).
Catalog
Helper file for the display and transformation tools, which
maps public identifiers and URLs to the local file system.
Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
A common document management system used by the LDP.
DocBook
An SGML (and XML) application, describing a document format
that allows easy management of documentation.
docbook-utils
Software package easing XML conversions.
Document Type Definition (DTD)
A group of statements that define element names and their
attributes specifying the rules for combinations and
sequences. It's the DTD that defines which elements can or
cannot be inserted in the given context.
DSSSL
DSSSL stands for Document Style Semantics and Specification
Language. It's an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 10179:1996). The DSSSL
standard is internationally used as a language for documents
style sheets pages for SGML.
element
The elements describe the content's structure in a document.
Most elements contain a start tag, content and a closing tag.
For example a paragraph element includes all of the following
<para>This is the paragraph.</para>. Some elements are "empty"
and do not contain content and a closing tag. An example of
this is a link to an external document where the URL is
printed to the page. This element would include only the
following <ulink url="http://google.com/>.
Emacs
Popular text editor, especially on UNIX systems or alikes.
entity
An entity is a name designated for some part of data so that
it can be referenced by a name. The data could be anything
from from simple characters to chapters to sets of statements
in a DTD. Entity parameters can be generic, external, internal
or SGML data. An entity is similar to a variable in a
programming language, or a macro.
epcEdit
Cross-platform XML editor.
external entity
An external entity points to an external document. External
entities are used to include texts on certain locations of a
SGML document. It could be used to include sample screens,
legal notes, and chapters for example.
float
Objects such as side bars, pictures, tables, and charts are
called floats when they don't have a fixed placement on the
text. For printed text, a chart can appear either at the top
or at the bottom of the page. It can also be placed on the
next page if it is too large.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
LDP hosts a number of documents that are a list in the form of
questions and answers. These documents are called FAQs. A FAQ
is usually a single-page document.
generic entities
An entity referenced by a name, which starts with "&" and ends
with semicolon is a generic entity. Most of the time this type
of entity is used in the document and not on the DTD. There
are two types of entities: external and internal. They can
refer to special characters or to text objects such as
repeated sentences, names or chapters.
GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
Like the GNU Public License for free software, but with
specifics for written text and documentation with software.
GNU Public License (GPL)
License type for software that guarantees that the software
remains freely distributable, that the source code is
available, that you can make changes to it and redistribute
those changes if you want, on the condition that you keep on
using the same license for your derived works.
Guide
TLDP documents that are too long to be a HOWTO are usually
stored as guides. These are more like entire books that treat
a particular subject in-dept.
HOWTO
Documents that discuss how to do something with a system or
application. Most documents hosted at TLDP are HOWTOs,
explaining how to install, configure or manage tens of
applications on a variety of systems. HOWTOs are typically
10-25 pages.
internal entity
An internal entity refers to part of the text and is often
used as a shortcut for frequently repeated text.
ispell
Spell check program.
Jade
An application which applies the rules defined in a DSSSL
style sheet to an SGML or XML document, transforming the
document into the desired output.
Markup, markup language (ML)
Code added to the content of a document, describing its
structure.
Metadata
Text in your document that is not important for understanding
the subject, but that should be there anyway, such as version
information, co-authors, credits to people etc.
nedit
Text editor oriented to programmers.
nsgmls, onsgmls
SGML document parser and validator program.
OpenOffice (OOo)
Open Source office suite, compatible with Microsoft Office.
parameter entity
An entity type often used in the DTD or a document's internal
subset. The entity's name starts with a percent sign (%) and
ends with a semicolon.
PSGML
Emacs major mode that customizes Emacs for editing SGML
documents.
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(OASIS)
OASIS is a non-profit, global consortium that drives the
development, convergence and adoption of e-business standards.
Outline
Draft of your document that conceptualizes the subject and
scope. Summary and To-Do list for the work to come.
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Standard document type supported on a wide range of operating
systems.
processing instruction
A processing instruction is a command passed to the document
formatting tool. It starts with "<?". This document uses
processing instructions for naming files when it is rendered
into HTML: <?dbhtml filename="file.html">
PostScript (PS)
Document format designed for printable documents. PS is the
standard print format on UNIX(-alikes).
Reviewer, review process
TLDP doesn't accept just anything. Once you submit a document,
it will be checked for consistency, grammar, spelling and
style by a reviewer, a volunteer assigned by the review
coordinator.
SGML
Standard Generalized Markup Language. It is an international
standard (ISO8879) that specifies rules for the creation of
electronic documents in markup systems, regardless of the
platform used.
Subject and scope
Obviously, the subject is what your documentation is about.
The scope defines which areas of the subject you are going to
discuss, and how much detail will be involved.
tag
An SGML element bounded by the marks "<" and ">". Tags are
used to mark the semantic or logical structure of a document.
A sample is the tag <title> to mark the beginning of a title.
TeX
Popular UNIX text formatting and typesetting tool.
Transformation
The process of converting a document from its original DocBook
XML form to another format, such as PDF, HTML or PostScript.
Validation
The process of checking your XML code to ensure it complies
with the XML DTD you declared at the top of your document.
vi Improved (vIm)
Popular text editor on UNIX and alike systems.
WordPerfect (WP)
Popular word processor, runs on many systems.
XML
eXtensible Markup Language. A sub-product of SGML created
specifically for Internet use.
xmllint
Command line XML parser and validator.
XMLmind XML Editor (XXE)
Free but not Open XML editor.
xmlto
Command line XML transformation program.
XSL
XML Style Language. XSL is to a XML document what a DSSSL
style is for a SGML document. The XSL is written in XML.
Extensible Stylesheet Transformation (XSLT)
Framework for managing documents, consisting of the XSLT
transformation language, the XPath expression language and XSL
formatting objects.
________________________________________________________________
Appendix F. GNU Free Documentation License
F.1. 0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
written document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone
the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without
modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily,
this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get
credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It
complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals;
it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License
principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
________________________________________________________________
F.2. 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed
under the terms of this License. The "Document", below, refers to any
such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is
addressed as "you".
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
modifications and/or translated into another language.
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section
of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall
subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall
directly within that overall subject. (For example, if the Document
is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not
explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of
historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of
legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
regarding them.
The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice
that says that the Document is released under this License.
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed,
as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says
that the Document is released under this License.
A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
represented in a format whose specification is available to the
general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited directly and
straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed
of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely
available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text
formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats
suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise
Transparent file format whose markup has been designed to thwart or
discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A
copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML
or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple
HTML designed for human modification. Opaque formats include
PostScript, PDF, proprietary formats that can be read and edited only
by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
processing tools are not generally available, and the
machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for output
purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the
material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works
in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page"
means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's
title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
________________________________________________________________
F.3. 2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies
to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no
other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further
copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept
compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough
number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and
you may publicly display copies.
________________________________________________________________
F.4. 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than
100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must
enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and
legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front
cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally
prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in
addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they
preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can
be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering
more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent
copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque
copy a publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a
complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material,
which the general network-using public has access to download
anonymously at no charge using public-standard network protocols. If
you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps,
when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure
that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated
location until at least one year after the last time you distribute
an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that
edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies,
to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
Document.
________________________________________________________________
F.5. 4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under
the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified
Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy
of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
* A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous
versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the
History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a
previous version if the original publisher of that version gives
permission.
* B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the
Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal
authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has
less than five).
* C. State on the Title Page the name of the publisher of the
Modified Version, as the publisher.
* D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
* E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
adjacent to the other copyright notices.
* F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version
under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the
Addendum below.
* G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license
notice.
* H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
* I. Preserve the section entitled "History", and its title, and
add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors,
and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page.
If there is no section entitled "History" in the Document, create
one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the
Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing
the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
* J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous
versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History"
section. You may omit a network location for a work that was
published at least four years before the Document itself, or if
the original publisher of the version it refers to gives
permission.
* K. In any section entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
preserve the section's title, and preserve in the section all the
substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements
and/or dedications given therein.
* L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered
in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the
equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
* M. Delete any section entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may
not be included in the Modified Version.
* N. Do not retitle any existing section as "Endorsements" or to
conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or
all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to
the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license
notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and
a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the
list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of
Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or
by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,
you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit
permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
imply endorsement of any Modified Version .
________________________________________________________________
F.6. 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
license notice.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique
number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled "History"
in the various original documents, forming one section entitled
"History"; likewise combine any sections entitled "Acknowledgements",
and any sections entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections
entitled "Endorsements."
________________________________________________________________
F.7. 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
documents released under this License, and replace the individual
copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents
in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
dispbibute it individually under this License, provided you insert a
copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
document.
________________________________________________________________
F.8. 7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate
and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, does not as a whole count as a Modified Version
of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed for the
compilation. Such a compilation is called an "aggregate", and this
License does not apply to the other self-contained works thus
compiled with the Document , on account of their being thus compiled,
if they are not themselves derivative works of the Document. If the
Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of
the Document, then if the Document is less than one quarter of the
entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers
that surround only the Document within the aggregate. Otherwise they
must appear on covers around the whole aggregate.
________________________________________________________________
F.9. 8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
translation of this License provided that you also include the
original English version of this License. In case of a disagreement
between the translation and the original English version of this
License, the original English version will prevail.
________________________________________________________________
F.10. 9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
except as expressly provided for under this License. Any other
attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from
you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so
long as such parties remain in full compliance.
________________________________________________________________
F.11. 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the
GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions
will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in
detail to address new problems or concerns. See
[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.
If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specified version
or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by
the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a
version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
________________________________________________________________
F.12. Addendum
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and
license notices just after the title page:
Copyright <20> YEAR YOUR NAME.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES,
with the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover
Texts being LIST. A copy of the license is included in the section
entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
If you have no Invariant Sections, write "with no Invariant Sections"
instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no
Front-Cover Texts, write "no Front-Cover Texts" instead of
"Front-Cover Texts being LIST"; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to
permit their use in free software.
Notes
[1]
Please, take a look at the
[http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/guide/docbook/LDP-Author-Guide
/] source to see how to get similar results on your documents. You
should also remember that the way this appears to you depends on the
format in which you are reading this document: online appearance is
slightly different from the PostScript or PDF ones.
[2]
In truth, "XSL" is actually comprised of three components: the XSLT
transformation language, the XPath expression language (used by
XSLT), and XSL Formatting Objects (FO) that are used for describing a
page. The style sheets are actually written in XSLT and generate
either HTML or (for print output) FO. The FO file is then run through
a FO processor to create the actual print (PDF or PostScript) output.
See the W3C web site for more information.
[3]
In XSL terminology, the process of generating multiple files is
referred to as "chunking".
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