[boost] [boostbook] cleanup / modernization

Subject: [boost] [boostbook] cleanup / modernization
From: James E. King III (jking_at_[hidden])
Date: 2018-07-18 13:43:27

I would have opened an "issue" on the boostorg/boostbook project, however,
that is not enabled.  (Perhaps someone should enable it?)

I have duplicated the boostbook setup scripts into the docker setup
environment for Ubuntu Bionic and I have found that all of the packages
that boostbook depends on are ancient.
PackageVersionLast ModifiedHost
docbook-xsl 1.75.2 2009 SourceForge
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-xsl/1.75.2/docbook-xsl-1.75.2.tar.gz>
docbook-xml 4.2 2002 oasis-open.org
<http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbook-xml-4.2.zip>
fop 0.94 2007 Apache
<http://archive.apache.org/dist/xmlgraphics/fop/binaries/fop-0.94-bin-jdk1.4.tar.gz>

These tools are quite old and it is only a matter of time before the older
versions could be removed. These external sites are under no particular
requirement to keep these older versions of software available. At some
point some of these tools may no longer work with current operating system
tools, for example "fop" says that it is for "JDK 1.4".

Each of these tools has a newer version. A project should be initiated now
to modernize the documentation build to use more recent versions of these
tools before it becomes a critical release blocker at a bad time.

- Jim