Re: Bug#350397: ITP: dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook sources

2006-01-30 Thread Frank Küster
Andreas Hoenen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 In comparison to that the dblatex development is very vivid, when one
 reports a bug, in most cases it will be fixed within a few days.  The
 upstream author generally is very helpful and would be glad to get the
 project packaged in Debian.

 I was able to convince the guys on the Debian SGML mailing list that
 dblatex should be packaged
 (http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/2005/10/msg00014.html), they were
 asking for a voluntary maintainer in response.  

So far, so well.  But I'd really also like to read an answer to the
question whether it is, or can be made a drop-in replacement for
db2latex, and whether you've talked with db2latex's Debian maintainers
(apparently a different mailing list with a similar name).  And by the
way, upstream of db2latex in fact is active, they've helped in fixing a
RC of db2latex - unfortunately it still has one, without any maintainer
reaction since September 05.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)



Re: Bug#350397: ITP: dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook sources

2006-01-29 Thread Frank Küster
Andreas Hoenen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Package: wnpp
 Severity: wishlist
 Owner: Andreas Hoenen [EMAIL PROTECTED]


 * Package name: dblatex
   Version : 0.1.8
   Upstream Author : Benoit Guillon [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 * URL : http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/
 * License : GPL
   Description : Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook 
 sources

 DocBook to LaTeX Publishing that transforms your SGML/XML DocBook documents to
 DVI, PostScript or PDF by translating them in pure LaTeX as a first process.
 MathML 2.0 markups are supported, too. It is a clone of DB2LaTeX.

... which is already in Debian, and apparently hardly maintained.  If
this upstream branch is in fact better suited, and you will have enough
energy to maintain it properly, I think you should try to replace
db2latex (and coordinate with its current maintainers).  Helping
to bring db2latex into a better shape isn't an option for you?

Regards, Frank

-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)



Re: Bug#350397: ITP: dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook sources

2006-01-29 Thread Peter Samuelson

[Andreas Hoenen]
 * Package name: dblatex

 DocBook to LaTeX Publishing that transforms your SGML/XML DocBook
 documents to DVI, PostScript or PDF by translating them in pure LaTeX
 as a first process.  MathML 2.0 markups are supported, too. It is a
 clone of DB2LaTeX.

Please explain in your package description why somebody might wish to
install this instead of db2latex-xsl.  Or, if this is just a wrapper
script around db2latex-xsl, please just ask to have it added to that
package.


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Re: Bug#350397: ITP: dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook sources

2006-01-29 Thread Andreas Hoenen
From: Frank Küster [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Bug#350397: ITP: dblatex -- Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF 
documents from DocBook sources
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:26:27 +0100

 Andreas Hoenen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
  Package: wnpp
  Severity: wishlist
  Owner: Andreas Hoenen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 
  * Package name: dblatex
Version : 0.1.8
Upstream Author : Benoit Guillon [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  * URL : http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/
  * License : GPL
Description : Produces DVI, PostScript, PDF documents from DocBook 
  sources
 
  DocBook to LaTeX Publishing that transforms your SGML/XML DocBook documents 
  to
  DVI, PostScript or PDF by translating them in pure LaTeX as a first process.
  MathML 2.0 markups are supported, too. It is a clone of DB2LaTeX.
 
 ... which is already in Debian, and apparently hardly maintained.  If
 this upstream branch is in fact better suited, and you will have enough
 energy to maintain it properly, I think you should try to replace
 db2latex (and coordinate with its current maintainers).  Helping
 to bring db2latex into a better shape isn't an option for you?
 
 Regards, Frank
 
 -- 
 Frank Küster
 Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. 
 Zürich
 Debian Developer (teTeX)
 

Hello Frank,

my reason for prefering dblatex over DB2LaTeX is simple.  According to
my experience DB2LaTeX is effectively upstream dead, as there has not
been any release since beginning of 2004, there has not been any mail on
the developers mailing list since over half a year, and there has not
been any answer to a simple patch I submitted half a year ago.  Sorry
for this project, but without active upstream development it does not
seem very useful to me.

In comparison to that the dblatex development is very vivid, when one
reports a bug, in most cases it will be fixed within a few days.  The
upstream author generally is very helpful and would be glad to get the
project packaged in Debian.

I was able to convince the guys on the Debian SGML mailing list that
dblatex should be packaged
(http://lists.debian.org/debian-sgml/2005/10/msg00014.html), they were
asking for a voluntary maintainer in response.  Unfortunately noone
there did react to my offer to package dblatex and to my question if
someone would be interested in sponsorship; traffic on this mailing list
fell silent since December...

Thus I want to send an RFS to the Debian mentor mailing list in a few
days when I have finally tested my packaging efforts.

I understand the hesitation in including just another DocBook-pdf tool,
but to me like to some other people at the moment it just seems the most
usable and promising solution.

Regards, Andreas Hoenen