Very Computer

Hi,

I've been looking at SGML-Tools for a while (ages actually) and I'm
wondering how easy it is to use the package with a different DTD.

Basically I want to write documents for which I want to use a specially
designed DTD. As well as defining the DTD I would need to supply the
code that converts elements of the DTD into the various output elements.

Has anybody tried doing this sort of thing with the SGML-Tools package?
Is it easy or is the package more or less hardwired to the DTD it uses?

Thanks for any experiences,

                                Mark

To your question:

"Hmmm... on closer examination, this (the sgml-tools, LD) is something
of a hack.
They hacked the DTD, hacked the down-translators, etc. I like the idea
of using a LaTeX-like DTD, but I think I'll wait till this matures a
little more."
(See <http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/SGML>. Thats my opinion, too)

Ok, so the answer is yes and no. It just depends what your' going to do.
SGML just defines a syntax (for HTML for example). If you what to add
semantic
for it you need another program (a DSSSL interpreter), that does the
translation
of a SGML derivation tree to some form that can be used by a typesetting
machine
or program.

sgml-tools (former: linux-doc) does not have a DSSSL-interpreter and
there is no
free one out yet (but - wait 1 or 2 month, someone is nearly thru with
one).

Instead it uses a much poorer tool, which only allows very simple
transformation.
And thats the answer: If you want to add simple changes to the
linux-doc-dtd,
just go ahead, it's simple. You may also define complete new dtd and
also may
have good times with it.

You cannot do any transformation with it that requires to rotate, copy
or transform
the sgml tree in any form. Attributes of a node are only available at
the beginning
of a pre-order-traversion of the tree.

I will not that qwertz.dtd did not work.  sgml-tools said it had errors
and duplicate entities (which it didn't).

I've written simple dtd's and they seemed to work with sgml-tools.

--

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"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade
of grass and not fall off the face of the earth."