From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu May 15 06:24:48 1997
Return-Path: <owner-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id GAA17840
          for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 15 May 1997 06:24:48 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from fallout.campusview.indiana.edu (fallout.campusview.indiana.edu [149.159.1.1])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA17831
          for <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>; Thu, 15 May 1997 06:24:46 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from localhost (jfieber@localhost)
	by fallout.campusview.indiana.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id IAA27749;
	Thu, 15 May 1997 08:24:11 -0500 (EST)
Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 08:24:11 -0500 (EST)
From: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>
To: "Pedro F. Giffuni" <pgiffuni@fps.biblos.unal.edu.co>
cc: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Is Thot (WYSIWIG editor) for you?
In-Reply-To: <337A9618.4C98@fps.biblos.unal.edu.co>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970515075847.311A-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

On Wed, 14 May 1997, Pedro F. Giffuni wrote:

> SGML stuff we could (in theory) "add":
> There's this site that even keeps a CVS tree:
> http://web.inter.NL.net/users/C.deGroot/sgmltools/

This was the basis of the original linuxdoc to
(text|latex|postscript|html) conversion used in FreeBSD. 
However, it was (and still is as far as I can tell) a hideous
collection of hacks by people who apparently didn't know much
about SGML.  I've been replacing the whole system bit by bit. The
only remaining piece is the linuxdoc DTD itself, although I've
cleaned it up a bit, removing some of the more offensive abuses
of SGML. 

In short, been there, done that!

I have not looked at COST too carefully, probably just because
I'm not that fond of tcl.

> An object oriented toolkit:
> http://www.jclark.com/sp/index.htm

Jade is the way to go for formatting.  The current heart of the
FreeBSD SGML conversion system is instant(1) which is more
cumbersome, less powerfull, and full of bugs.  I brought it in
because (a) it was so much better than the original linuxdoc
tools and (b) jade was too young.

Jade is getting mature enough now that instant's days are
definately numbered--I have a list of bugfixes and enhancements
to instant that I suspect will never get implemented.  :)

-john