[xml/sgml] docbook2x and db2latex-xsl?

[Ardo van Rangelrooij]

W. Borgert (debacle@debian.org) wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> while I'm still going to package db2latex-xsl, I also would
> like to see docbook2x (0.8.2 is current) in Debian.  Two
> reasons for that tool: It's the only tool to transform
> DocBook/XML refentries into TeXinfo.  I'm a GNU Emacs user
> and therefore addicted to M-x info!  Also it translates to
> nroff with tbl (tables) support, which is not yet in
> docbook-xsl AFAIK.  Unfortunately, docbook2x uses a fork of
> xsltproc with special enhancements to do it's magic.  But
> there is no chance with standard XSL, it seems.

It would be nice if we could take of these enhancements as a kind of
extension to the normal xsltproc.  We'll have to look at that.  Doesn't
xslt support extensions in some way or another?

> db2latex-xsl is a little bit complicated: Upstream does
> already good Debian packages, db2latex-xsl and
> db2latex-xsl-examples, but I think db2latex-xsl and
> db2latex-xsl-doc would be more debianic.  Also, upstream
> uses a local, heavily patched copy of docbook-website to
> create web pages/documentation.  I would prefer to use the
> standard Debian package, even if the result would look
> different.  db2latex-xsl is an expert tool, but the output
> is worth it, just look at the PDFs on my page (see below).

Hmm, maybe this can be taken care of via customization (or maybe it already
is done like that)?

About the db2latex-xsl-doc vs. db2latex-xsl-examples: Maybe we need both?
I don't know how much documentation there is or how much examples there are,
but maybe enough to warrant their own packages?  Just a thought.

> I'm a little bit busy at the moment, so things are going
> very slowly at my end.  If there are any volunteers for
> docbook2x and/or db2latex-xsl, I'ld be more than happy.  If
> not, I am going to package both tools, but it still takes
> time.  Also, it would be nice to have the support of the XML
> team.  Comments?

I'm maintaining docbook-utils and one of the outstanding bug reports is about
adding support for manual page creation from DocBook-XML.  This is provided by
docbook2x, so I'm interested in getting that package in Debian.

I already started to look at this, so I'll give it a shot.  I also have to
look how it "integrates" with docbook-utils.  I'll upload the source to the
CVS area later this week and start packaging.

Thanks,
Ardo
-- 
Ardo van Rangelrooij
home email: ardo@debian.org
home page:  http://people.debian.org/~ardo
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