From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 16 14:33:47 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0BC0316A41F for ; Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:33:47 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from markzero@corolla.ath.cx) Received: from addr9.addr.com (addr9.addr.com [38.113.244.40]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B24C743D49 for ; Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:33:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from markzero@corolla.ath.cx) Received: from logik.internal.network (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by addr9.addr.com (8.12.11/8.12.8/Submit) with ESMTP id k0GEXh79053580 for ; Mon, 16 Jan 2006 06:33:44 -0800 (PST) Received: by logik.internal.network (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 4B1E3669A; Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:33:43 +0000 (GMT) Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:33:42 +0000 From: doc@darklogik.org To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20060116143342.GB65645@logik.internal.network> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="s2ZSL+KKDSLx8OML" Content-Disposition: inline X-GPG-Key: http://darklogik.org/pub/pgp/pgp.txt X-Fingerprint: 0160 A46A 9A48 D3B0 C92F B690 17FB 4B72 0207 ED43 X-ADDRSpamFilter: Passed, probability (0%) X-ADDRSignature: 52165C99 Subject: single source publishing? X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:33:47 -0000 --s2ZSL+KKDSLx8OML Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello. I realise that this is slightly off topic, but I reasoned that this would be the most appropriate place to write to as there's likely to be a large number of documentation writers here and I am working almost exclusively on FreeBSD. Is it really possible to do high quality single source publishing on FreeBSD with only one degree of seperation? By one degree I mean that the different file formats are generated in one step =66rom the source file - not, for example, converting to HTML with one filter and then to PDF from that HTML source. Ideally I would like to write LaTeX or XML and produce - - XHTML - UTF-8 text - Postscript - PDF - DVI Of all the options that I have seen, Docbook or LaTeX-docbook seem to make the most sense. The problems I am facing are: 1) The XML toolchain seems to be somewhat lacking on FreeBSD. I do not want to use a Java-based or commercial tool. Having looked around at the available options and having tried a few test documents, it appears that I can generate XHTML from XML Docbook and little else. I can't even generate UTF-8 text as 'links' (the browser) doesn't seem to support UTF-8 and this appears to be the only way convert HTML to text whilst retaining page layout. The only existing C based tool to produce XML-FO for Postscript (xmlroff) is extremly unstable and crash-prone (I've not managed to get a single piece of output from it). I've heard that passivetex can do XML->PS/PDF but apparently it's ancient and unmaintained, these days. 2) I can generate PDF, Postscript and DVI from LaTeX but only plain (non-XML) HTML. I would then have to run the HTML through a tool such as 'tidy' and even then, the output would have to be hand edited in order to allow custom styling via CSS. Of course, there's still the problem with UTF-8 text and links unless TeX can do nice typesetting in plaintext too? I have tried to put together a few shell scripts in order to try out some long conversions, eg XML->XHTML->PS->PDF but the output is, frankly, ugly and uncontrollable due to so many degrees of seperation. My current options appear to be: Docbook XML -> XHTML -> Postscript (html2ps) -> PDF (ugly) The above creates a sorry excuse for a PDF copy (effectively the page breaks are wrong as it's done by length of output as opposed to explicit breaks). Alternatively: LaTeX -> Postscript -> DVI -> PDF -> HTML -> XHTML (via tidy) The XHTML output in this case is quite poor and not really properly styleable[1] with CSS. As far as I can see, there's no way to produce good quality, predictable output in the current formats. I'm more than a little surprised by this as XML in particular is always touted as being a wonderful structural format that permits easy conversion to any format. To be honest, I could probably tolerate something like this: Docbook XML -> XHTML -> LaTex -> PS -> PDF -> DVI Does anybody have a solution, perhaps that they use regularly? Or, do I have to get out my toolbox and spend the next ten years in total isolation? (please CC as I'm not subscribed) cheers, M -- [1] pretend this is a real word please... --=20 pgp: http://www.darklogik.org/pub/pgp/pgp.txt 0160 A46A 9A48 D3B0 C92F B690 17FB 4B72 0207 ED43 --s2ZSL+KKDSLx8OML Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iQIVAwUBQ8uuxRf7S3ICB+1DAQoigA/7BNqTdwO5LPsICOjqwAIJ/5nHPqQMY25H 1P9IBQGuz4O7kXcQICXbBFB8kS+T6UupvTKYkJuPOwjsy/jul9Cd8h4sHxYLSy6X j6Q1FPEj1g03vDTW+iC95gsMFM05JNqmCFGH59/lQeDpMTKRr0Rtqx9+OlJUDT6t wy4UDBfbkhl47niKDStShfgBSyCXP7+vB3UQGeLZfwMEgLpHENLjYtKJKU+zDvWF 4F1BaTzBQdahf30fc5nWFxhm/R3lD5bBtt3ThT9Ey/aG/+ZefPJryECA5o46vgPI BOeO3e8FMTiizUY9RQZthbFrj4tcO10fZZpIzaVcGCOYvlrL8uf4uwetYM2QCkDX fSk0GHyalcWaPcx/OdbzT01nBPSl0EuZNkXcHDIyi9ICjeawHXQw1Zjc6wNgxSzg PZpZpgCvpb3IA2djT8S9qJJgVbIYAXPfrB6nKT4J+y6OLjWBc0lGShg/P+cJHO4S 3ctPZNDkZ7s5NFlXXR3W6VigjMZ3hF2H3NS//GSmYljdZ6dcTQnn0duWqABA9Sm+ 3q4orW8rORM3Cmv4kTzAcrl0qJoTXHxrv09qQKihIhzmHOCjOaNnjhg2FXj2TTas T9jIbrelIuHbg7Iq99ghz3bSr8CFH326Q3MB2FJ7FUdPAoSOg8ng4ThmR2PANmhr W/d4QSIwq7w= =0Ro+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --s2ZSL+KKDSLx8OML--