[Techtalk] Keeping legal notices in Docbook.

[David Merrill]

On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 05:23:07PM +1100, Mary Gardiner wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 02:08:01AM -0500, David Merrill wrote:
> > It uses a postgres back end (and you would be welcome to use mine,
> > already set up and operational) to house the meta-data, and text tags
> > to markup. It looks like this:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Is this for the LDP's wiki-like thing? I saw a note about it. I'll have
> a play, but I think for this task I'm more comfortable maintain the
> SGML with the logical markup (begin question... end question... begin
> answer... end answer...) and converting it to layout-based markup like
> HTML than the other way around. (I'm coming from a LaTeX background, I'm
> used to working with document structure rather than layout :) )

Yep, that's right. But it is a standalone utility as well. I just took
over maintainership of the Linux FAQ, and I converted it into the text
format, and it works great.

Q: What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

A: 42.

is a lot easier to write than:

<qandaset>
  <qandaentry>
    <question>
      <para>
        What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
      </para>
    </question>
    <answer>
      <para>
        42.
      </para>
    </answer>
  </qandaentry>
</qandaset>

All the text format really does for you is remove some of the drudgery
involved in DocBook by making the simple structures easy and far less
verbose.

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org

[Bill Gates] not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the competition. He
wants to bury the wounded.
	--James Wallace, Seattle Post-Intelligencer