Re: Automatic Legalese Generator?

[skud netizen com au]

On Tue, May 30, 2000 at 03:06:01PM +0100, Telsa Gwynne wrote:
> 
> And I don't think there is a way to get
> <!entity licence.sgml system "$prefix/path/name/file.sgml">
>                               ^^^^^^^
> into the docs, so I think we're stuck :( 

Hrm... can't use relative paths?

And, am I to take it that conversion from docbook to whatever format is
required happens on the end-user's system?  Seriously?  *boggle*  

It would seem to me (uninitiated in the ways of the GDP as I am) that it
makes sense for the GNOME folks to "compile" the docs and ship them in
HTML or whatever other format is appropriate, especially since you seem
to be using modified stylesheets and so on.

> This has been one heck of an issue, actually, because there have been
> several cases where we have wanted to refer to other documents which
> we can reasonably expect to be on the system, and there doesn't appear
> to be a way to do it which will work on all the different Linux distros,
> let alone work on *BSD and Solaris too... We are really hoping that we
> can somehow do something magical and clever with Nautilus, the file
> manager in development which is going to Solve All Our Problems and
> Look Really Pretty Whilst Doing So. 

I can understand the problem of pointing to "compiled" documents (eg
HTML) in the finished product, but it's a slightly different matter for
the source files, surely?

> Unless... unless... Well, I was looking at <olink> the other day in the 
> DocBook reference book. Unfortunately I don't quite follow the explanation
> and example supplied, but it appears to be a way of making links to 
> other docs via entities. Could we use this? Would we be able to say
> "If the OS/distro is this, the entity is this" with that? Or am I
> grasping at straws? 
> 
> I'm really bad with entities, and I can't find a single example of
> <olink> in use. Has anyone used it? How?

Fraid not... I'm a bit of an SGML cargo-cultist, myself.

> Hi, yourself. Good to see you. :) 

Why thank you :)

And I may as well divulge my other reason for being here (which I'll
shortly post to -devel as well) ... I'm working on an article about the
GNOME project and how it is that it manages to work so well.  I've been
watching from outside for a while and have been fascinated by the
apparent togetherness and organisation that I've seen, and wanted to
find out whether it really exists, what drives it, and whether the same
principles can be applied to other open source projects.  So I've
subscribed to a few lists to lurk, chat to people, and research my
article.  The GDP list, however, is the one list I subscribed to even
before I decided to go ahead with this article.  Quite apart from my
journalistic interest in GNOME, I would very much like to contribute to
this side of the project.  So you'll probably see me around for a while.

K.

-- 
Kirrily Robert -- <skud@netizen.com.au> -- http://netizen.com.au/
Internet and Open Source Development, Consulting and Training
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