Re: Q) Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Converting from DocBook/SGML to DocBook/XML

[Dan York <dyork at e-smith dot com>]

Jeff,

> Is there an advantage in using DSSSL with DocBook Xml?

The only reason I can see to use DSSSL with DocBook XML would be that you
already have the SGML tools installed (i.e. (open)jade) and have done
a great amount of customization of DSSSL stylesheets.  

I do have a DSSSL customization layer that I use with SGML tools, but I 
found it was relatively easy to re-implement this in XSLT. Personally,
I find XSLT a much easier language to work in for stylesheets that DSSSL.

> Does DSSSL work better than Xsl for rendering PDF?

Right now, my Java environment is broken on my box, so DSSSL is my only
way of going to PDF (I have just recently downloaded Sebastian's 
PassiveTeX and have not yet installed it.), but I have had a number of
people tell me that FOP and PassiveTeX both produce decent PDF.

> Are DSSSL tools and utilities more mature and have fewer bugs?

Well... they've been around longer.  I am quite impressed, though, with
the speed of development of the XSL tools (Xalan, Saxon, libxslt and
others) and I am now getting equally as good HTML output from the XSL
tools as I was from the DSSSL tools. (And one of the XSL tools, libxslt,
has been faster in the processing than openjade.)  The other thing is that
with XSLT I feel a whole lot better modifying and controlling my
stylesheets. (I did NOT have this comfort level with DSSSL.)

So, while the XSL tools are newer, I think they are evolving very rapidly and
can now match the older tools in performance and stability.

My 2 cents,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, Director of Training        dyork@e-smith.com
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