Re: DocBook -> Texinfo (via DSSSL) Proof-of-Concept Demo

[Maciej Stachowiak <mstachow mit edu>]

drepper@cygnus.com writes:
> Jim Pick <jim@jimpick.com> writes:
> 
> > I didn't try to do any stripping out of whitespace.  But couldn't that
> > be done just using a function written in DSSSL?  (heh, it's Scheme,
> > mostly)
> 
> This completely ignores the purpose of DSSSL :-)
> 
> If you look at the DSSSL specs you'll find in the later half (chapter
> 11?) the desription of the "output language".  The DSSSL itself should
> more or less be output format independent.  I.e., one should be able
> to use Norm's DSSSLs.  The work to be done is to get a Jade backend
> which maps the lowlevel stuff of the backend description to reasonable
> texinfo.  Forcing a string out really is only the last escape.
> 
> Since you've started writing it this way and I cannot provide anything
> similar I don't suggest to not use your code.  Rather I'd propose to
> not spend to much time on this one approach since it is a dead end.

Writing raw output in the stylesheet is probably a bad idea in light
of this. However, Texinfo is considerably higher-level than HTML, it's
probably closer to the DocBook level of abstraction. Will it realy be
possible to use the same stylesheet to generate it, with an
appropriate Jade backend? I say this as someone who (so far) knows way
too little about the subject matter.

Anyway, this is another reason why, IMO, we should set up a mailing
list and figure out implementation technology before going any
further.

 - Maciej