IAS wrote:
I would like to add an item to that list: the Ant <style>/<xslt> task. The Slide project, for example, uses that, but also Struts, IIRC. It's pretty much a "no-dependancy" solution, and it works if you don't want/need to get fancy.Now Apache has two major sectors about Java: XML and Jakarta. Actually the two sectors have interacted a lot, and as its result, there have been also several various ideas for documentation.Originally XML brought out stylebook as an ant task, which currently seems obsolete somehow. For its alternative, Velocity Anakia appeared. It utilizes Velocity template technology with xml documents, however, does not go with XSLT. Velocity DVSL is slightly different from Anakia in this sense. As you see the initials as Declarative XML Transformation and Templating, DVSL "steals" some features of XSLT, but "still" sticks to Velocity template language. Meanwhile, XML Forrest came up as a sort of "ASF" representative documentation system. Forrest is purely based on XML technologies such as XML itself, XSLT, DTD, and possibly even XML Schema some day. Its range is also remarkable: Ant, Centipede, Cocoon, Gump, Scarab, Slide, and etc... All the names are on the page of the Forrest Primer. At this very moment, I suggest that we be as considerate as possible for next generation documentation system for the cactus project. IMHO, stylebook is naturally connected to Forrest, so it might be smooth and promising to choose Forrest. Here's a summarized table of each technology: document template (relative) stability Stylebook XML XSLT (literally) too stable Anakia XML Velocity stable DVSL XML Velocity CVS stage Forrest XML XSLT CVS stage
IMHO, both Maven and Forrest are looking promising (although they have different focusses of course), but they are also both pretty much moving targets ATM. I *personally* wouldn't move a serious project to either technology just now.
The topic of XSLT vs. DVLS/Anakia has often enough been a trigger for flame wars. IMHO, as complex as XSLT might be considered by some, it's usage is far more common than usage of DVSL. In consequence, more people will be able to contribute to the stylesheets if XSLT is used, at least in theory (personally, I'm not going to learn DVSL any time soon ;-) ). However, this discussion doesn't actually matter, as the stylesheets would actually come with the documentation system, and wouldn't need to be touched by the individual projects (in an ideal world, that is).
--
Christopher Lenz
/=/ cmlenz at gmx.de
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