From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Nov 5 12:07:22 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA23991 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 12:07:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk (nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk [193.237.89.66]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA23966 for ; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 12:07:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk) Received: (from nik@localhost) by nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA24026; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 20:06:28 GMT (envelope-from nik) Message-ID: <19981105200628.55923@nothing-going-on.org> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 20:06:28 +0000 From: Nik Clayton To: "Jason C. Wells" , FreeBSD-chat Subject: Re: Why SGML for docs? References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.89.1i In-Reply-To: ; from Jason C. Wells on Wed, Nov 04, 1998 at 10:45:45PM -0800 Organization: Nik at home, where there's nothing going on Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Nov 04, 1998 at 10:45:45PM -0800, Jason C. Wells wrote: > I have seen that FreeBSD makes calls for SGML documentation. I know HTML > and it is easy and pretty powerful with HTML 4.0 and CSS. > > I took a peek and SGML and my hair turned white. My brief look at SGML led > me to think HTML is pretty good. I don't need to look at SGML. I am happy > with this small subset. > > What makes SGML useful for docs? Is it conversion tools for different > formats? Is it the power? You didn't look at SGML, you looked at DocBook. DocBook and HTML are both languages that are defined using SGML. DocBook is much more expressive than HTML, allowing it to be more precise, more consistent, and, when I get the toolchain finished, much more useful (automatic links to man page CGI scripts, better searching, conversion to more formats). For a gentler introduction to DocBook, take a look at which is in the process of being massively expanded and revamped, and which is a little more comprehensive. Either way, please stick around. We need people to climb that learning curve and figure out how to document it so that the people that come after you find it easier. Critique the first one above, tell me what does and doesn't make sense. N -- C.R.F. Consulting -- we're run to make me richer. . . To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message