>>>>> "Vipul" == Vipul Mathur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Vipul> On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 08:12:12PM +0530, Raju Mathur wrote:
>> Why don't we just use an existing content-management
>> application with some enhancements (RTF -> SGML conversion) for
>> the Freed site for the time being?
Raju: why should RTF be considered for the document originating
standard if the final archival format is SGML? Because, both the
formats follow different philosophies in their approach to a document
-- the former being a presentation oriented and the latter structure
oriented.
[...]
Vipul> Maybe we could do a RTF/DOC to LaTeX conversion before
Vipul> going to SGML, might get quite ugly though!
RTF==>LaTeX==>SGML will have more work than you imagine. However, if
you succeed to save RTF as HTML, apply a decently written XSLT style
sheet to translate to SGML conformant to your DTD, although, this
doesn't solve the problem of well structuredness for reasons you list
below.
Vipul> I also found that most websites lay stress on the fact that
Vipul> the originating document must be "well-structured" with
Vipul> consistent heading styles to enable any decent
Vipul> conversion. I don't know how one can ensure that, with the
Vipul> normal tendency of MS Word users (?!) to mark out headings
Vipul> and sub-headings by applying hard formatting.
Most of our authors dont know what a structured document means. And
wordprocessor users pay scant attention to well structured document,
although the document universe is moving towards this paradigm faster
than we imagine. It is not far off when the publishers are going to
demand authors especially in the academia to provide inputs in SGML or
XML format if they want to get their documents published.
I feel, this is an opportune time for us to introduce LaTeX for
authoring. It is trivial (I know, you will not agree with me) to
generate content in LaTeX, because what we need to teach is nothing
but a few sectioning levels; attributes like bold, smallcaps, italic;
verbatim code listing and enumerated lists. I can even help you to
provide a class file, its user documentation, a specimen document and
a template with which authors can start work. I am sure, people will
find this more interesting than using a wordprocessor, that's my
experience with novice TeX users.
For a resistant author, we can suggest to go for LyX which will help
to export to LaTeX and DocBook SGML while retaining a WYSIWYG
wordprocessor experience.
For your authors who use Windows, TUGIndia can provide TeXLive CDROM
(you might burn and distribute as you like). TeXLive is a ready to run
TeX system for Linux, Win32 and OS X in a single CD, which if you dont
want to install, can be run from the CD itself without installing unto
your harddrive. And a decent tutorial is provided free of cost at
TUGIndia site.
--
Radhakrishnan
