[OS X TeX] OT: DocBook vs. LaTeX

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 15 juil. 04, à 20:05, Kevin Walzer a écrit :

> Does anyone on the list have experience with DocBook as a method for
> writing documentation? I've looked into a it a little bit because it
> seems to be very popular among software developers, especially
> open-source, while LaTeX seems to get a bad rap. What I've found,
> though, is frighteningly complex (it's XML-based and has hundreds of
> tags), is lacking in good tools, at least on the Mac, and ends up with
> the same kind of output as LaTeX--printed and HTML information,
> generally. I have found pdflatex and htlatex to be perfect tools to
> produce what I need, so I am really lost as to what advantages DocBook
> might have. Any perspective is appreciated.
>
> - --
> Kevin Walzer, PhD


Hi,

I've forwarded your question to a DocBook/LaTeX expert (Bruce d'Arcus) 
who's no longer on this list. Following is what he has to say.

Bruno Voisin


> Bruno -- yeah, I've not been on that list for a long time (too much to 
> do, and not enough time for LaTeX).  I'll answer the questions quickly 
> here, and you can forward if you like:
>
>>> I've looked into a it a little bit because it seems to be very 
>>> popular among software developers, especially open-source, while 
>>> LaTeX seems to get a bad rap.
>
> LaTeX is a bad markup language, particularly for specific stuff like 
> software documentation.
>
>>> What I've found, though, is frighteningly complex (it's XML-based 
>>> and has hundreds of tags)
>
> Yes, there is a learning curve, but once you've climbed it (it's not 
> that hard) you'll find it quite easy.  Use a good xml editor like 
> Oxygen or the emacs mode nXML.
>
>>> , is lacking in good tools, at least on the Mac,
>
> There is no decent OS X-native XML editor, but the two I mentioned 
> above (the first is Java) are very good.
>
>>> and ends up with the same kind of output as LaTeX--printed and HTML 
>>> information, generally I have found pdflatex and htlatex to be 
>>> perfect tools to produce what I need,
>
> Really?  You honestly find nothing wanting with using LaTeX as your 
> source??
>
> I suggest you post the question to the DocBook-apps list as well, for 
> a different perspective.  I use DocBook to write my (scholarly) 
> documents, and use my own custom made XSLT stylesheets to get LaTeX 
> and XHTML output.  I find this a far more powerful combination than 
> using LaTeX as source.
>
> Bruce
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