Re: [boost] Reference documentation: one approach

From: Michael Walter (cm_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-10-29 09:47:52

MS> Douglas Gregor wrote:
>> Boost library documentation is scattered amongst many HTML files in many 
>> different directories. Several users and developers have expressed an 
>> interest in unified reference documentation for all of the Boost libraries. 
MS> [...]
>> I chose to try out an XML format for the documentation, using XSLT to 
>> transform the XML into a suitable HTML document.
MS> [...]
>>   4) We can transform the XML into whatever sort of medium we want.

>> Comments? Questions? Boos from the crowd?

MS> I think that the effort of creating a unified documentation is a very 
MS> reasonable idea. However...

MS> AFAIK, the well-established way to write anything is to use LaTeX. It 
MS> has all the characteristics you write, from "omnipresence" to 
MS> possibility to convert to any format I've heard of.
MS> The difference between XML/XSLT and LaTeX is that:

MS> - LaTeX is *ALREADY* present in every reasonable Unix/Linux 
MS> distribution, it is also available as freeware for Windows. Nobody 
MS> expects from you writing any additional tool: PDF? PostScript? RTF? 
MS> HTML? plain text? man pages? They're all there.

MS> - XML is more trendy in this season.

MS> I'm really sorry if you find the second point offensive, but I just do 
MS> not understand the motivation for the additional effort with XSLT. Note 
MS> also that the description of the logical structure of the text is much 
MS> more concise in LaTeX than in XML. At least I think so.

What do you think about DocBook?

-- 
Best regards,
 Michael                            mailto:michiwalter_at_[hidden]