[H-GEN] DocBook Howto software

[Greg Black]

On 2005-11-27, Harry Phillips wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-11-27 at 17:23 +1000, Greg Black wrote:
>>> 
>>> I want to write one using the DocBook format but I can't seem to find a
>>> decent package that is simple to use.
>> 
>> Hardly surprising, since nothing that really works with DocBook
>> is simple to use.  In fact, unless it is your misfortune to
>> already have a significant investment in DocBook, the smart
>> approach would be to avoid it completely.
> 
> Hmm... ok I did want something simple but since that is not likely I am
> not afraid of learning (wouldn't use Linux if I was).

It's not so much a matter of learning, as of dealing with absurd
complexity for little real benefit.  (As for the parenthetical
remark, if you substituted "computers" for "Linux", I'd tend to
agree.)

>>    "There comes a point in the life cycle of any system when
>>     adding one more patch is the wrong solution to every
>>     problem. Eventually, it's time to rethink, refactor, and
>>     rewrite. For DocBook, I think that time has come."
> 
> Hmmm... if the creator is saying that it needs to be retired then I am
> convinced.

Those of us who did not have an investment in DocBook have been
saying that for years ...

>>> What do you use to create Howto's?
>> 
>> TeX, still the only capable documentation software around.
> 
> Is Lyx like a GUI front end to TeX? Is it hard to learn? Is the learning
> curve as steep as Linux? Do you know of any good beginner tutorials?

Taking the above in order: yes; dunno; dunno (but I don't
consider Unix-style systems to be hard to learn); nope.  But, as
always, Google is your friend.

> What I wanted to do was create one "master" document that could then be
> saved as individual HTML pages with the "Prev ---- Up ---- Next" created
> automatically or as a single page.
> 
> You know the ones I mean, what do they use to do that, they sure would
> not do them by hand, that would be a nightmare.

Dunno about "them", but if all I'm doing is creating simple HTML
documentation as described above, I do it by hand with Emacs.
The only situation where I'd consider something complex is if I
wanted various output formats, e.g., HTML, PDF, PostScript.

However, I expect there are tools that would assist with this,
and they should be easy enough to find with Google as well.  Not
needing them, I'm not familiar with any offerings.

Cheers, Greg