Editorial Reviews:
DocBook: The Definitive Guide is the complete and official documentation of the DocBook Document Type Definition (DTD) and many of its associated tools. DocBook is a system for writing structured documents using SGML and XML. It provides all the elements you'll need for technical documents of all kinds. A number of computer companies use DocBook for their documentation, as do several Open Source documentation groups, including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). With the consistent use of DocBook, these groups can readily share and exchange information. With an XML-enabled browser, DocBook documents are as accessible on the Web as in print. DocBook: The Definitive Guide was written by Norman Walsh, the author of the XML implementation of the DocBook DTD; and Leonard Muellner, the manager of O'Reilly & Associates' Production Tools Group. In this book, you'll find: - A brief introduction to SGML and XML
- A guide to creating documents with the DocBook DTD and associated stylesheets
- Information about using SGML and XML tools like Jade and DSSSL
- An guide to customizing DocBook
- A complete SGML and XML reference, including examples, for every DocBook element
In addition, the CDROM contains: - The complete source text of this book, in both SGML and HTML
- All the examples from the book
- DSSSL Stylesheets that let you convert DocBook documents to RTF, LaTeX, or HTML
- The DocBook DTD for SGML, version 3.1
Oasis, the organization that is the official maintainer of the DocBook DTD, has identified DocBook: the Definitive Guide as the official documentation for the DocBook DTD.
The DocBook SGML specification allows publishers to mark up text content to be used in traditional print as well as on the Web. DocBook: The Definitive Guide examines and catalogs the entirety of the DocBook specification and will be useful to anyone who uses SGML to publish documents. DocBook uses SGML to structure the contents of a book, identifying such elements as authors, chapters, headings, and so on. The heart of DocBook: The Definitive Guide lies in its full reference of over 300 DocBook elements, organized alphabetically (from "Abbrev" to "Year"). The syntax of each element is described, along with sample SGML code illustrating its proper usage. This book assumes a working knowledge of SGML, though basic concepts are described during the introduction. Later reference sections present a wide range of DocBook "entities." (These are values that can be used to describe custom content within a DocBook document.) Character entities, codes used to describe diacritics and mathematical symbols, are also listed. Later sections address DocBook customization, including removal of unused elements. As you might expect, no single publishing scheme employs every SGML element available; however, like any good reference, it includes a discussion of each element that could conceivably be used. Another useful section discusses the relationship between DocBook and XML, including the fairly simple conversion possibilities for cross-translating these markup types. DocBook is a powerful way to distribute books, both in traditional print and online. Provided you have some knowledge of SGML, anyone who makes use of the DocBook specification will benefit from this worthy reference. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: DocBook basics and SGML/XML; publishing books with DocBook; style sheet languages: FOSIs, DSSSL, CSS, and XSL; DocBook element reference; attribute entities; class entities; common entities; module entities; local attribute entities; mixture entities; module parameter entities; role attribute parameter entities; character entities; customizing DocBook; converting DocBook to XML.
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 6 to 6 of 6 total reviews (Page 2 of 2):
 Excellent but dense!
This book describes the de facto standard for creating technical documents - the Docbook Data Type Definition (DTD). Docbook is used by most of the major Linux vendors, the Linux Documentation Project, and many large companies. Docbook is a specific set of SGML tags which can be used to create technical books, articles, etc. The book is largely a very clear description of each tag which exists in the Docbook DTD. The appendices cover issues like installation and getting started, which are too brief for my taste. The authors give a brief intro to SGML, describe the structure of a Docbook document, and then jump into the tag descriptions. The problem is, there is no such thing as a Docbook application, like MS Word or something. Either you have to write documents by hand in a text processor (e.g. Notepad or vi), or you need a terribly expensive SGML tool to automate the process for you (e.g. Arbortext's products). It took me quite a while to understand that! More Customer Reviews:
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