Re: [docbook-apps] DocBook Website 2.6.0 released

[Michael Smith <smith at xml-doc dot org>]

Dave Pawson <davep@dpawson.co.uk> writes:

> On Sun, 2005-05-01 at 07:50 +0900, Michael Smith wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Here's an idea: Maybe we could integrate the Website stylesheets--
> > and Slides stylesheets, while we're at it -- into the standard
> > DocBook XSL Stylesheets distribution. That is, just make them a
> > part of the standard docbook-xsl releases.
> 
> Thanks but no thanks Michael?
> I'd like to make it a positive decision to move from one release
> to another, rather than by default when I upgrade one of them
> I get them all.
> In my case its a lot of work to move up a notch on the website
> stylesheets. I don't do it lightly.

What I'm suggesting would make things easier for you, not harder.
It would (potentially) result in you needing to upgrade *less*
frequently, not more.

Here's why: The big problem we have currently is that because of
the way we have chosen to package Website, you (as a user) *must*
upgrade the public and system IDs in your doc instances for every
Website release regardless of whether or not the release includes
any changes to the DTDs; that is, even if the release *only*
includes changes to the stylesheets.

So what I'm talking about is separating the Website and Slide
*stylesheets* from the DTDs and instead integrating just the
stylesheets into the main XSL stylesheet distribution.

That way, if we need to make a change to just the Website
stylesheets (not the DTD), we don't need to reversion the Website
DTDs and release a new Website package.

And unless there is something very wrong in your setup, moving up
a notch to a new version of the Website *stylesheets* or any other
stylesheets does not need to be a lot of work. All it should
involve is just that you install the stylesheets locally on your
system. You should never need to change the URI for the
stylesheets anywhere. You should just use this:

  http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/website/current/xsl/website.xsl

Or whatever other Website driver file (tabular.xsl,
chunk-website.xsl, chunk-tabular.xsl). And let you catalog system
resolve that to the latest version.

If you're installing from a package for a major OS distro (Debian,
Red Hat, Mandriva, SuSE, Cygwin, etc.), the package installer will
update your catalog setup automatically. And if you're installing
manually from the release tarball, I added an install.sh file to
the distro that is intended to do a similar automatic update of
your catalog setup (along with other things).

Basically, all that I'm suggesting is that the Website driver
stylesheet would end up instead being at:

  http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/website/website.xsl

To use Website and Slides, you are already required to also have
the DocBook XSL Stylesheets installed -- because the Website and
Slides stylesheets import the DocBook XSL Stylesheets.

With the change I'm suggesting, you would need to install only one
set of stylesheets -- The DocBook XSL Stylesheets -- instead of
two sets (DocBook XSL and DocBook Website stylesheets) or three
sets (if you use both Website and Slides).

  --Mike

-- 
Michael Smith
http://logopoeia.com/ | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/890

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature