DOCBOOK-APPS: Ant and XMLSpy

[Scott Shepard <scottdavidshepard at hotmail dot com>]

If anyone is interested, I have found XMLSpy (v5r3) and Ant to work well 
together. I searched this list for "Ant" and found nothing.

I pass the build.xml file in as if it were the stylesheet :)

Here is the command line I use for the "External XSL Transformation 
program:" in the Options window:

C:\programs\Ant\jakarta-ant-1.5.1\bin\ant.bat -Dsource.file=%1 -f %3 
-Dout.slot=%2 -Dstyle.file=%3

Ant does the rest (I haven't tried to figure out why I needed the absolute 
path).

This Atom Ant (Super Spy?) combination allows me to use different XSLT 
processors through XMLSpy without opening the Options window each time I 
want to change. Also, I intend it to replace Make when I am using the 
WebSite doctype. Mr. Walsh said something about needing Make for sites with 
source in more than one directory.

(I couldn't transform DocBook with either the native XMLSpy XSLT processor 
or MSXML, btw)

I have used this combo with Saxon, Jade, and Xalan. TeX causes it to freeze 
though. TeX likes to ask questions, so I use Ant to build the FO and control 
TeX from the command prompt.

I was pretty happy to find this combo and am hoping someone else will also 
find this info useful.

Now, if I could only get paid to do this stuff! ;)

p.s. I do have a question. What are the "digest" email lists for, like 
docbook-apps-digest?

sds

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