From owner-freebsd-doc Wed Jun 25 23:46:40 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id XAA07161 for doc-outgoing; Wed, 25 Jun 1997 23:46:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ragnet.demon.co.uk (ragnet.demon.co.uk [158.152.46.40]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA07156 for ; Wed, 25 Jun 1997 23:46:36 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from dmlb@localhost) by ragnet.demon.co.uk (8.8.5/8.8.5) id HAA06190 for freebsd-doc@freebsd.org; Thu, 26 Jun 1997 07:47:42 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 07:47:42 +0100 (BST) From: Duncan Barclay Message-Id: <199706260647.HAA06190@ragnet.demon.co.uk> To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD documentation Sender: owner-doc@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > On Wed, 25 Jun 1997, Francisco Reyes wrote: > > > I think a template SGML document and a documented sample would go a > > long way. Last time I tried I remember I downloaded some of the > > existing SGML and could not make much sense of them. > > After your first post, I actually started sketching one out. > That combined with a cookbook of common markup structures (lists, > examples, computer terms, cross referneces, footnotes, etc.) > would be good. John, I need this! I'm putting together the inn+suck howto and am finding that docbook is okay. Actually finding the "right" things to use is a little hard with the current state of docbook's own documentation! If you need a guinea pig/comments of a docbook newbie can you send me a draft. > > > >It may be better to de-emphasize issues of document format. If > > >the *content* is good, I really don't care what the format > > >is--SGML tagging is fairly mindless work. > > > > True, but it still takes time (your time or someone's elses time). I > > still think that a documented SGML template can go a long way. > > It takes time, but nowhere near the time it takes to fix up > incoherent content. :) > I guess that there are a lot of people who are computer literate and run FreeBSD at home and are very capable of writing in SGML, but haven't got the resources (time, money for books, inclination) to really get to know yet another text processing language. e.g. I have written lots in LaTeX and have all the books, but I dont want to get an SGML book! Duncan ________________________________________________________________________ Raggy | God smiles upon the little children, dmlb@ragnet.demon.co.uk | the alcoholics, and the permanently stoned. ________________________________________________________________________