Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Again: Apache FOP,Docbook: Features / Versions,"complete" Docbook distribution

[Dave Pawson <daveP at dpawson dot freeserve dot co dot uk>]

At 10:15 15/01/2002 -0500, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>Dave Pawson writes:
>
> > That's why I liked the idea of 'skipping' a few versions. Say one
> > update per year, at Norm's choosing?
>
>Surely you're kidding?
>
>How are you going to explain to the crowd, "you still have to wait 10
>months for these bug fixes to be released so that the 'newbies' don't get
>confused about the many versions"?  The reason that there are many
>releases (in any project), is that bugs are fixed rapidly and new features
>are added frequently.  Also keep in mind that some of the technology
>involved (e.g., XSL) is still relatively new and the tools still have to
>be completed in the first place.

No, not kidding.
The rate of change is important for those waiting for bug clearances,
new features olink and the like.
For someone just getting started, its as important as ....
something unimportant.
The need there (as I see it) is to get output from input.
No more, no less.

the satisfaction then kicks in, we drop back down the learning curve,
and are happy to learn about tags, other output media,
entities, Unicode, all the crap that burdens us in using docbook.
  (Ok its not crap, but it sure feels like it when the curve is vertical)





>In general, I think if someone doesn't want to set up the processing
>toolchain by himself from scratch he should use a prepackaged deal.  This
>is available for many operating systems.

I think that was the point the posters were making.
The pre-packaged deal isn't easily found.

Regards DaveP