I see that Flare supports DITA, would that be a good alternative to DocBook?
http://dita.xml.org/ On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 3:16 PM, Bob Jolliffe <[email protected]> wrote: > On a spectrum between low-level standardized technical docbook through > to "user friendly" (use Word), vendor-locked proprietary and patent > encumbered technology, this one seems to fall on the far right :-) > Not quite what I had in mind. > > I can see the attraction but I would be very wary to go in this direction. > > On 7 April 2016 at 13:52, Rachael Brooke <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > > > Cecilia and I have been thinking about trying out a new tool that could > > handle big documentation projects, translation files and other > resources. So > > it's good timing that this issue is being raised by you. > > > > We were considering looking into a solution which you may know, called > > MadCap Flare: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/. > > > > If you have any other suggestions, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts. > > > > Thanks for bringing this up - we're investigating! > > > > Rachael > > > > On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 1:42 PM, Knut Staring <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> Would be good to hear from our new documentation experts (Rachael and > >> Cecilia) on this issue (what kinds of tools they would be comfortable > with > >> etc). > >> > >> Knut > >> > >> On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 1:30 PM, Bob Jolliffe <[email protected]> > >> wrote: > >>> > >>> Hi Jason, Lars > >>> > >>> I am not sure the link about oxygen nested comments is really > >>> addressing the "thing". > >>> > >>> I agree with Lars that having the "<!-- Created by Serna Free -->" > >>> text inserted into all our documents is ugly, wrong and misleading. > >>> If you are using Serna Free I think it might be a simple courtesy to > >>> just strip those comments before committing. Of course its possible > >>> to forget and maybe some sort of removal hook could be configured > >>> automatically (sed, xsltproc ..) but its maybe not so hard to just > >>> delete the line. > >>> > >>> I am not sure of what the problem is with oxygen encountering these > >>> comments are though. Maybe I also don't get the "thing" :-) I open > >>> the docbook files with oxygen and don't encounter a problem related to > >>> the comment. The docbook4 "type" seems to be immediately recognized > >>> and I get a Docbook4 menu appear when I switch to author mode whether > >>> the comment is there or not. Is it an oxygen version issue (I > >>> currently use 17.1) or is there some other issue I am missing? > >>> > >>> Though I think there are deeper issues at play. First is that Serna > >>> Free seems no longer to be maintained (as a free version). One > >>> consequence of this being that using it keeps us frozen in time at > >>> docbook 4.4. The last release of the docbook 4.x series was 4.5 back > >>> in 2006. The 5.0 (and now 5.1) series has been out for quite a long > >>> time now (2009?). AFAIK the only reason for sticking with 4.x has > >>> been the availability of Serna Free. > >>> > >>> (Which is not a small thing. The sad truth is that another good free > >>> candidate for docbook editing by non-technical authors hasn't ever > >>> emerged. Of course if you are more than a bit geeky then emacs does a > >>> good job. But even I don't use emacs anymore for editing docbook > >>> documents. I use oxygen, which is not free.) > >>> > >>> Two thoughts come to mind: > >>> (i) it probably really makes sense to rejoin the (docbook) world and > >>> move from 4.4 to 5.0. Particularly if the now defunct Serna Free is > >>> the only factor holding us back. I understand that there are > >>> transforms available to make this a painless journey. The best > >>> available in terms of free editing tools with a strong docbook focus > >>> seems to be the eclipse DEP4E plugin. Otherwise there are the > >>> non-free tools as well as host of xml schema aware editors. > >>> Admittedly none of these really qualify as eminently suitable for > >>> non-technical authors so the problem isn't really completely solved, > >>> but maybe improved slightly. > >>> > >>> (ii) more radically, it might be time to consider moving from docbook > >>> altogether. There are a host of "cool" alternatives (markdown and > >>> friends) none of which I am fond of, but they have enthusiastic > >>> supporters. To me they all seem like endless reinventions of > >>> roff/nroff/groff and certainly lack the maturity of docbook. But > >>> maybe the world has moved to a stage that its possible to consider > >>> editing html5/css3 documents directly? Certainly there is > >>> considerable user friendly editing tools available. And conversion to > >>> pdf seems not to be a problem. Though whether this would cause the > >>> clean structure of documents to descend into anarchy I don't really > >>> know. > >>> > >>> My 2 cents. I would certainly advocate (i) above (though admit its a > >>> strong response to just getting rid of Serna Free comments). (ii) > >>> frightens me quite a bit. Certainly would be a lot of work. > >>> > >>> In the end comes down to (i) who will do most of the documentation and > >>> what do they like or tolerate, (ii) what effort is justified to fiddle > >>> with what is really quite a nice looking set of existing > >>> documentation. > >>> > >>> For the moment lets at least agree to keep those horrible comments out. > >>> > >>> Bob > >>> > >>> On 6 April 2016 at 11:31, Jason Pickering <[email protected] > > > >>> wrote: > >>> > For instance, perhaps this > >>> > > >>> > http://www.oxygenxml.com/forum/topic3658.html > >>> > > >>> > which seems to describe a means of getting around comments. > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 7:01 PM, Jason Pickering > >>> > <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> >> > >>> >> Hi Lars, > >>> >> I think there must be a way around this, and I would not be in favor > >>> >> at > >>> >> all of ditching Serna. Its a good tool and not everyone has access > to > >>> >> a > >>> >> relatively expensive commercial tool like Oxygen. > >>> >> > >>> >> Serna Free inserts this automatically unfortunately when it saves > the > >>> >> document, but lets look for a look around to deal with this in > Oxygen. > >>> >> > >>> >> Regards, > >>> >> Jason > >>> >> > >>> >> > >>> >> On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 6:44 PM, Lars Helge Øverland <[email protected] > > > >>> >> wrote: > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Hi, > >>> >>> > >>> >>> re the documentation.The Serna editor horribly inserts a > >>> >>> > >>> >>> <!-- Created by Serna Free --> > >>> >>> > >>> >>> comment in all files it creates before the DTD. This throws off > >>> >>> Oxygen > >>> >>> from detecting it to be a Docbook format. Lets not use Serna > anymore > >>> >>> or at > >>> >>> least make sure we don't get comments in the beginning of docbook > xml > >>> >>> files. > >>> >>> > >>> >>> Lars > >>> >>> > >>> >>> -- > >>> >>> Lars Helge Øverland > >>> >>> Lead developer, DHIS 2 > >>> >>> University of Oslo > >>> >>> Skype: larshelgeoverland > >>> >>> http://www.dhis2.org > >>> >>> > >>> >>> > >>> >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> >>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> >>> Post to : [email protected] > >>> >>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> >>> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > >>> >>> > >>> >> > >>> >> > >>> >> > >>> >> -- > >>> >> Jason P. Pickering > >>> >> email: [email protected] > >>> >> tel:+46764147049 > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > -- > >>> > Jason P. Pickering > >>> > email: [email protected] > >>> > tel:+46764147049 > >>> > > >>> > _______________________________________________ > >>> > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> > Post to : [email protected] > >>> > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > >>> > > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> Post to : [email protected] > >>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-documenters > >>> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Knut Staring > >> Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo > >> Norway: +4791880522 > >> Skype: knutstar > >> http://dhis2.org > > > > > -- Knut Staring Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo Norway: +4791880522 Skype: knutstar http://dhis2.org
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