Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 11:15:09 -0600 (CST) From: Jay Nelson <jdn@acp.qiv.com> To: nclayton@lehman.com Cc: nik@FreeBSD.ORG, doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: TeX problems; Doc. Proj. needs you! Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990115100853.429B-100000@acp.qiv.com> In-Reply-To: <19990115102437.R18103@lehman.com>
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On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 nclayton@lehman.com wrote: >Hi Jay, > >Sorry for the delay, I've been slightly swamped this week. I've cc'd >this to the -doc mailing list, so that other interested parties can >chime in as necessary. Thanks for the reply. Since my first email I've learned some more and see that some of my concerns were premature. >> Should we be doing this in TeX or troff? (TeX would be my prefered >> weapon of choice -- but past books, I believe have been done in >> troff.) > >At the moment, we can only do this in TeX. You probably already know >this, but this in case. . . TeX is actually better and where I'd prefer working. The jadetex macro package inputs a file called jadetex.cfg at the end of the macro processing which can override anything in the jadetex macros. Jadetex is a good framework, so my jadetex concerns are moot. >Currently, we have a small problem with the JadeTeX macros -- they don't >handle some of the constructions in the Handbook. Sebastien has sent me a >new version, which fixes this problem but breaks PDF output. He knows about >this bug, and is working on a fix. If you've got the TeX skills to work on >this as well, please let me know. The jadetex.cfg could handle some of this. This is how I think I would handle the hellip, eth and thorn entities. If there are other problems, I haven't bumped into them, yet. What other constructs are causing problems? Can you send me the new macros? While I have TeX skills, I don't know if I understand the macros well enough at this point to be of much help, but since I'll be going through the macros anyway, maybe I can. >> What are the TeX goals? Is this something that Walnut Creek is likely > >I think it's more important that it be easy for the user to download and >print -- this means at least two versions of each format produced (one >at US Letter size, one at A4 size), and available in as many useful formats >as possible (particularly for Windows and Mac users). I'm pretty certain >we've got this covered, with the PDF generation (when it works). That makes sense. That means fonts will remain Times and Helvetica. Have we a style guide? >> The generation of one huge TeX file is rather dissatisfying > >Not sure I understand this bit. I was thinking as a printer (printing press type). Disregard this comment. It's easier to split the file if it ever goes to production than break the mechanism. >However, I have another, preferred approach to this -- in the long run I >want to break the Handbook out in to a number of separate books, a little >like the Linux HOWTOs (but with more control over their structure). This is a good idea. I'll check the links. >These would then comprise the _FreeBSD Documentation Set_. >This is quite a radical change, and the first thing I intend to tackle when >the Jade issues have been worked out. So far, the jadetex portion doesn't look too bad -- but I haven't spent enough time, yet, to know. >> The raw jade output is horrible, and generally, bad bookwork. > >Pass. I'm not sufficiently up on TeX to comment. This was an unfounded overreaction. The jadetex.cfg file solves all this. From the comments in the jadetex.dtx file, it's fairly clear the macros are intended as a framework. It's a well done framework, BTW. >> Inclusion of an additional style sheet is required to make a decent >> book. I'm not sure where that is best done. So far, I've added the >> redefinitions to freebsd.dsl under the %output.print section, but >> that's not the best place to put specific, local definitions. What do >> you suggest? What is the best way to include local style >> modifications? > >If you wanted to override the definitions in freebsd.dsl then create your >own file (local.dsl?) and include freebsd.dsl in the same way that freebsd.dsl >includes Norm's stylesheets. That's essentially where I ended up. >'instant'? The new Handbook won't be going anywhere near 'instant' and the >transpecs. It's DSSSL all the way. So I have seen. I think I should have spent more time before I asked questions. >> The jpja language business is broken in the modular docbook package, >Jun Kuriyama who wrote them I believe. I think the jpja stuff will be >rolled in to a future release of Norm's stylesheets, so this issue >should sort itself out. Good. I was lost on that one. Now that I understand more of the system, most of my concerns are gone. For the time being, I'll be concentrating on doing as much with the jadetex.cfg as possible and see how much can be done without additional style sheets. Thanks for the info. -- Jay To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the messagehelp
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