Thread: upgrade docs to DocBook V4.1 ?
Great Bridge would like to volunteer our services to the PostgreSQL community by upgrading the Community PostgreSQL docs to the latest version (V4.1.2) of DocBook. We would like to hear the community's feedback. Is this a good idea? Are there any objections? The community docs currently use DocBook V3.1, which has since been replaced by DocBook V4.1.2. Earlier versions are generally used for legacy and historical interest according to OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). In order to complete the conversion to V4.1.2 a short documentation freeze would be necessary--about two days--in order to complete the work. We look forward to your feedback. -- Jeff Self Information Specialist Great Bridge, LLC www.greatbridge.com | www.greatbridge.org
Jeff Self <jself@greatbridge.com> writes:
> Great Bridge would like to volunteer our services to the PostgreSQL
> community by upgrading the Community PostgreSQL docs to the latest version
> (V4.1.2) of DocBook.�We would like to hear the community's feedback. Is
> this a good idea? Are there any objections?
Unless Thomas has reasons for sticking with DocBook 3.1, the main
objection I can think of is that docs contributors with local sgml-tools
installations would need to update their installations to 4.1.2.
While that seems a good idea in the long run, it might be painful in the
short run. (I still have unpleasant memories of getting the sgml tools
to work at all on my box :-(.) Can you provide people with a recipe for
updating their DocBook installations? How much trouble is it likely
to be? If it's less than trivial, giving plenty of advance notice of
the changeover would be a good idea.
Another reasonable question is what the stability and longevity of the
4.1.2 release is likely to be ...
regards, tom lane
Jeff Self writes: > Great Bridge would like to volunteer our services to the PostgreSQL > community by upgrading the Community PostgreSQL docs to the latest version > (V4.1.2) of DocBook. We would like to hear the community's feedback. Is > this a good idea? Are there any objections? I would like you to tell us why this would be a good idea. I don't want to break people's painfully constructed setups merely for the merit of upgrading itself. -- Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter
Jeff Self wrote:
> Great Bridge would like to volunteer our services to the PostgreSQL
> community by upgrading the Community PostgreSQL docs to the latest version
> (V4.1.2) of DocBook. We would like to hear the community's feedback. Is
> this a good idea? Are there any objections?
>
> The community docs currently use DocBook V3.1, which has since been
> replaced by DocBook V4.1.2. Earlier versions are generally used for legacy
> and historical interest according to OASIS (Organization for the
> Advancement of Structured Information Standards).
>
> In order to complete the conversion to V4.1.2 a short documentation freeze
> would be necessary--about two days--in order to complete the work.
>
> We look forward to your feedback.
Just want to know if there any impact to local build docs.
regards
Laser
> > Great Bridge would like to volunteer our services to the PostgreSQL
> > community by upgrading the Community PostgreSQL docs to the latest version
> > (V4.1.2) of DocBook. We would like to hear the community's feedback. Is
> > this a good idea? Are there any objections?
What are the reasons to want to move to v4? Are there features we would
get, or is it mostly to make sure that we stay on a "supported standard"
part of the curve?
Are there extra or other tools we would be able to use? I might ask
about XML vs SGML/DSSSL, but I'm not sure if there are any success
stories using XML and open source tools yet.
> Unless Thomas has reasons for sticking with DocBook 3.1, the main
> objection I can think of is that docs contributors with local sgml-tools
> installations would need to update their installations to 4.1.2.
Well, that would be a good reason for anyone to have concerns about it.
The very recent Mandrake-8.0 ships with v3.1 (unless there is an extra
RPM for v4.x). fwiw, the Mdk-8.0 toolset installation seems to be less
broken than Mdk-7.2 was^H^H^His on my laptop. Are other distros shipping
v4.x?
Is anyone else in the Open Source world officially using v4 yet? We were
one of the very early adopters of the toolset, so maybe we can let
someone else pioneer the bleeding edge for once ;)
- Thomas
Thomas Lockhart writes: > Are there extra or other tools we would be able to use? I might ask > about XML vs SGML/DSSSL, but I'm not sure if there are any success > stories using XML and open source tools yet. One good reason to upgrade to 4.x would be that we could try out XML/XSLT tools, because DocBook XML doesn't exist in versions prior to 4.x. > Is anyone else in the Open Source world officially using v4 yet? We were > one of the very early adopters of the toolset, so maybe we can let > someone else pioneer the bleeding edge for once ;) Samba, PHP -- Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter
I've been monitoring the feedback ever since I offered to upgrade the community docs to the latest version of DocBook a few weeks back. It appears to me that there might be too many complications, particularly at the level of individual users, to move forward with this effort at this time. If the consensus changes and there is wider support for the upgrade in the future, my offer to do the work still stands. -- Jeff Self Knowledge Engineer Great Bridge, LLC www.greatbridge.com | www.greatbridge.org Norfolk, VA (757)233-5570 jeff.self@greatbridge.com