Dan apologizes, and then rants... (Was Re: TOCs in articles?)

[Dan York <dyork@linuxcare.com>]

Dan York wrote:
>
> Is it possible that I don't have the "ldp.dsl" stylesheet installed correctly?

Yes, it was not only possible, it was indeed the problem.  I went back
to the HOWTO-HOWTO and looked at the instructions at:

  http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-HOWTO/tips.html#AEN420

and found that I had not configured the ldp.dsl file with the correct paths,
nor was I calling openjade in the correct fashion.  When I followed the
instructions there, I had no problem at all.  I got my 2-level TOC and
everything else.

Apologies for bothering you all with the question when I had not gone back
to the manual first. (RTFM)

<rant>
In working with DocBook, both for some LDP stuff as well as for some things
within Linuxcare, I have found working with jade and stylesheets to be the
most painful part of it all. Creating DocBook files is, to me, trivial and
easy.  It's what to do with them afterward that is the headache.

Take the example here with "ldp.dsl". The instructions say to use jade (or in
my case openjade) with the following options:

  jade -t sgml -ihtml -d /usr/lib/sgml/stylesheets/ldp.dsl\#html
../HOWTO-HOWTO.sgml

In all the other tutorials and information I have had with jade, I have not
seen the "-ihtml" option used anywhere. Likewise, I have never seen the
construction
"\#html" at the end of a "*.dsl" file. Maybe I missed something in reading the
info,
but these were not options I would have tried without having read the
HOWTO-HOWTO.
Maybe this is just something particular to ldp.dsl. But it's not easy for
someone
new to all of this.

For that matter, it still seems bizarre to me that I must use "-t sgml" to
generate
an HTML file, whereas "-t rtf" or "-t mif" produces those other file formats.
And I
find it extremely weird that there is not "-t text" and that you have to do a
dump
with lynx (or another text browser).

I suppose these are all really issues for jade/openjade and the developers
there.
But they sure make it a pain in the neck for someone trying to learn how to use
DocBook to help the LDP.

</rant>

Thanks for listening... and thanks, Greg & whoever else helped, for creating
"ldp.dsl". When installed and used correctly it is definitely a great help.
Thank you.

Regards,
Dan

--
Dan York,  Linuxcare, Inc.
dyork@linuxcare.com    http://www.linuxcare.com/
1-603-264-0129 mobile, 603-268-0691 tel, 603-268-0103 fax
Linuxcare.  Support for the revolution.


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