Re: DocBook and Context?

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Matthew Baker wrote:

> I'd have thought it would be more than just mapping because SGML structure
> is so different from TeX.
> 
> There's also the possibility of using DSSSL and parsing it and the SGML
> with Jade or something similar.  Jade already has a TeX module but the TeX
> it outputs is JadeTeX, a TeX format especially for this purpose.  It
> basically shifts the responsibility of restructuring things to TeX, rather
> than Jade.

I've looked into that and rejected it for the moment. Actually the
manipulation part of jade is ok, but the typesetting part is
disappointing (and sort of useless). 

> Actually, I looked into all this before discovering ConTeXt.  My
> conclusion was that for anything reasonably complex, the TeX version
> invariably comes out not looking very good because by design SGML doesn't
> let you do low-level formatting.  You would have to write a very good

Indeed. A strange mix between structure and typesetting, with
typesetting going back to teletype times. 

> Still, I think there are some good things that can be gained with SGML
> support.  For example, kOffice plans to store everything as SGML.
> Database companies like Oracle are planning to use SGML.  SGML support in
> ConTeXt would mean being able to use ConTeXt to typeset database output,
> spreadsheet output, word processor output, etc.  That would be nice :)
> Plus, with SGML support automatically comes HTML support.  Then we could
> typeset HTML pages!

Sure. Actually I have a manipulation framework already. Did you pick up
the maps bibliography from our site? The source is coded in xml and the
records are manipulated by context. The manipulation stuff is still
undocumented. 

The nice thing is that context has quite some manipulative things built
in (many unknown to probably many reading this). So, in principle I just
have to build an interface. Because we currently are not involved in
SGML projects (that is, not in processing them ourselves) the motivation
for finishing the module is a bit low -)  

Concerning database output: we've done that often, even dbase ascii
output directly interpretated by tex (some 30K records nicely formatted
and crosslinked, an old project, pdf version 1.1 stuff with hundreds of
thousands of links, just another of our demo projects). 

Hans

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                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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