Re: Completely confused

[Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com>]

Just to add one tiny grain of clarification, DocBook is a format for
encoding your document and is completely independent of how that
document is formatted.  The formatting can be done by a DSSSL script
for Jade, but that is not the only way.

You only need the LDP DSSSL file if you _want_ to see what your doc
will look like after being published by the LDP.  If you use the stock
stylesheets shipped with DocBook, you will get _a_ rendering of your
document, and this will be a perfectly valid rendering even if it is
not 100% identical to how the LDP will render it.  This is a Good
Thing because, as technologies change, the LDP can still render your
doc in the last display device format regardless of how you first saw
it rendered.  For example, Norm Walsh has a new WebSite DTD which can
be used to format your pages for a pretty website display, and someday
there may be PalmPenguin display formats or "beamed directly into your
brain" formats.  As the writer, you shouldn't worry about such things.

As a writer for a big publisher, it amazes me to hear other writers
say they cannot leave MsWord because they cannot write without seeing
the GUI rendering, even though, once the publisher's design people are
done with the manuscript, the book will look dramatically different
from the word processor screen.  For my own use, I like a stylesheet
that makes clear typographic distinction between many semantic
meanings that my publisher completely ignores; I find it is the only
way I can trap many subtle typos when talking about commands, files,
devices and keystrokes.

-- 
Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@linux.ca>: office voice/fax: 01 519 4222723
T(C)Inc Business Innovations through Open Source http://www.teledyn.com
M:I-3 - Documenting the Linux kernel: http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net
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