docbook for LDP

[Kendall Clark <kclark@ntlug.org>]

Hi all,

I tried to start an LDP DocBook Working Group earlier this year, when
Lars was first taking over LDP leadership, but at about the same time
I heard threatening noises from my dissertation adviser, so I had to
drop everything else and produce something for him to look at... Ok,
about 37,000 words later, I have *some* time to contribute to this
effort.

I've been using DocBook for about 3.5 years, and I spent most of 1998
leading a large DocBook project for a Fortune 500 client---using all
free software on Linux. That was fun.

What I'd like to see this group produce is a comprehensive[1] LDP
Author's Guide to DocBook. I'm willing to serve as the editor for this
document, as well as to author some of it. But if it's going to get
done expeditiously, it needs to be a group effort.

As you all know if you've done much DocBook, it's a complex beast, and 
we need to produce a document that LDP authors can use as the
definitive reference to using DocBook for authoring LDP material.

I think the first thing we should do is come up with a working outline
for the Author's Guide. I have some ideas about that, but I don't want
to monopolize the discussion, so I'll let others go first. But,
ideally, after we've put the issues that need to be addresses into a
coherent and helpful outline, it's just a matter of filling the sucker
in. Some of the technical decisions will need to be discussed, perhaps
at some length; lots of the other decisions are almost strictly
conventional and just need to reflect the rough consensus of the
group.

As for production, colophon things, the Author's Guide should
obviously be produced in DocBook for several reasons, not the least of 
which is that it should itself serve as an exemplar of how the LDP is
going to use DocBook.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Best,

Kendall Clark

Footnotes: 
[1]  I don't mean "comprehensive" like Norm Walsh's book; i.e., we
don't need to give full detail for *every* DocBook element, content
model, entity set, etc. What we do need, however, is a document that
offers comprehensive coverage on all the issues surrounding the LDP's
use of DocBook.


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