Re: DocBook and Texinfo

[Eric Kidd <eric kidd pobox com>]

At 5:43 PM -0400 7/22/98, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>If there is a docbook -> texinfo translation project going on, I would
>like to join for the above reasons (and also because I want to use it
>for scwm). If there isn't, I would like to start one, and would
>appreciate it if other interested parties would contact me.

Translating DocBook to texinfo should prove trivial. Just decide which
DocBook constructs to map to which texinfo constructs, grab a copy of
nsgmls and the SGMLSpm Perl module, and write about a few hundred lines of
conversion code. This is the precise reason why SGML and DocBook were
created in the first place--so you could write programs to manipulate your
documentation.

If you need any help finding the various pieces or learning how to use
them, I'd be happy to lend a hand.

Oh, yeah--if you're editing DocBook text, make sure you have a good CATALOG
file in the local directory and use the Emacs SGML mode. If you spend a few
minutes studying the mode help (C-h m), it will increase your productivity
greatly. This can be tricky to set up, but is *well* worth the time
involved if you intend to write much documentation.

Cheers,
Eric