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On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 15:09, Bruce Byfield wrote:
> Megan Golding wrote:
[snip]
> >Why Simplified DocBook? What am I missing?
> >
>
> So far as I'm concerned, you've mentioned the main reasons. But I think
> our experiences may differ. I don't find these reasons marginal. If
> you're working in a group, or working over extended periods of time, a
> reduced set of elements is (at least for me) a tremendously useful
> organizing tool.
Gotcha. I work alone, so the tags I use are my choice and don't impact
anyone else's work. I'm starting to understand now how a team may find a
reduced set of tags more helpful to work off of. Guess its kind of like
a large team settling on the 5 to 7 Word|Frame styles they're going to
use -- it adds consistency.
> I suspect that many people already use a reduced set of tags, so
> Simplified DocBook is simply what most people want anyway.
I guess I use Simplified DocBook in my mind already :) There're a set of
tags I think of as common DocBook tags and use them 90% of the time. In
fact, when I'm teaching DocBook to newbies, I usually introduce about 5
tags and show them where to look up add'l tags when something doesn't
"fit" into the tags they already use.
> As an aside, I suspect that DocBook would greatly benefit from a GUI
> that organized different elements in menus and sub-menus. Since there
> isn't one, a simplified version is easier to work with, for no other
> reason that it's less to remember.
No doubt. My solution to the "too many elements to remember" problem is
that I keep the DocBook book open in a web browser and search the TOC
page for the element I need. Works pretty well for me, but means I can't
answer DocBook element questions without the browser up :)
On the GUI: Several have tried but none have succeeded, IMHO. The
problem is that WYSIWYG is the defacto standard for doc editing in most
people's minds. Any UI modeled on WYSIWYG principles won't work with
DocBook. Personally, the way psgml mode in Emacs organizes elements is
really nifty. If you're not using psgml, you should check it out.
Thanks, Bruce, for helping me grasp Simplified DocBook!
Meg
--
Megan Golding (mgolding -at- secureworks -dot- net)
SecureWorks, Inc.
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