Recommendation on V4.5 DTD vs. V5.0 RELAX NG

Hello list,

I have been searching through the archives and through the
web for about 
2 hours, but could not find a recommendation, so I just ask
here:

I want to start a new DocBook project from scratch, using
the usual Unix 
toolchain (Emacs, XSLT stylesheets, xsltproc, Apache's FOP
etc.).

Which version of DocBook should I use? The DTD or the
schema?

I have successfully worked on a DocBook project some yeas
ago, where I 
used V4.3 and the toolchain as mentioned above. Is it worth
to upgrade 
my knowledge? Are the tools stable enough to not get in
trouble with my 
customer?

Thank you for any advice.

Regards,
Joachim Ziegler



------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

Joachim Ziegler wrote:

> Which version of DocBook should I use? The DTD or the
schema?
> 
> I have successfully worked on a DocBook project some
yeas ago, where I 
> used V4.3 and the toolchain as mentioned above. Is it
worth to upgrade 
> my knowledge? Are the tools stable enough to not get in
trouble with my 
> customer?

The easy answer is to upgrade to the latest XML,
non-namespaced stuff,
which is 4.5.

It's less of a step then to go to the namespaced version, or
up to 5.0
which is nearly stable.

I.e. you could then transform your content.

Perhaps then experiment with the v5 content away from your
customers
until you're happy?


HTH



-- 
Dave Pawson
XSLT, XSL-FO and Docbook FAQ
http://www.dpawson.co.uk



------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

On 17/09/2007, Joachim Ziegler <zieglermpi-sb.mpg.de> wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> I have been searching through the archives and through
the web for about
> 2 hours, but could not find a recommendation, so I just
ask here:
>
> I want to start a new DocBook project from scratch,
using the usual Unix
> toolchain (Emacs, XSLT stylesheets, xsltproc, Apache's
FOP etc.).
>
> Which version of DocBook should I use? The DTD or the
schema?

Hi Joachim, I can't give an absolute recommendation but
I've
successfully migrated to a DocBook 5.0 toolchain (vim
instead of
emacs, sorry) and my current employers and converting around
about
1000 book titles (all sorts of trade titles) to a schema
based on
DocBook 5.0. They seem to have confidence that it'll work
(of course,
so do I as made the recommendation).

> I have successfully worked on a DocBook project some
yeas ago, where I
> used V4.3 and the toolchain as mentioned above. Is it
worth to upgrade
> my knowledge? Are the tools stable enough to not get in
trouble with my
> customer?
>
> Thank you for any advice.
>
> Regards,
> Joachim Ziegler
>
>

cheers

nic gibson
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
---------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org
>
>


-- 
Nic Gibson
Director, Corbas Consulting
Editorial and Technical Consultancy
http://www.corbas.co.uk/


------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

Thank you for your advice!

Nic Gibson wrote:
> Hi Joachim, I can't give an absolute recommendation but
I've
> successfully migrated to a DocBook 5.0 toolchain (vim
instead of

I do not mean migrating my old content form 4.x to 5.0.

I mean starting a brandnew project, and I wonder whether I
should better 
start with 5.0 right away or not.

Joachim


------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

On 17/09/2007, Joachim Ziegler <zieglermpi-sb.mpg.de> wrote:
> Thank you for your advice!
>
> Nic Gibson wrote:
> > Hi Joachim, I can't give an absolute
recommendation but I've
> > successfully migrated to a DocBook 5.0 toolchain
(vim instead of
>
> I do not mean migrating my old content form 4.x to
5.0.
>
> I mean starting a brandnew project, and I wonder
whether I should better
> start with 5.0 right away or not.

Sorry - I wasn't clear. My employer went from 'old books' to
DocBook 5.0.
It's a new project and other versions of DocBook weren't
considered.

nic

>
> Joachim
>
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
---------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org
>
>


-- 
Nic Gibson
Director, Corbas Consulting
Editorial and Technical Consultancy
http://www.corbas.co.uk/


------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

Hi,

we are now using v5 for all of our projects, the possible
minor glitches
we might face in case v5 suffers changes (which is quite
improbable now)
are certainly less than the work to migrate from v4 to v5 in
a near future.
I consider v5 features are great improvements indeed.

Camille.

Joachim Ziegler wrote:
> Thank you for your advice!
> 
> Nic Gibson wrote:
>> Hi Joachim, I can't give an absolute recommendation
but I've
>> successfully migrated to a DocBook 5.0 toolchain
(vim instead of
> 
> I do not mean migrating my old content form 4.x to
5.0.
> 
> I mean starting a brandnew project, and I wonder
whether I should better
> start with 5.0 right away or not.
> 
> Joachim
> 
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------
---------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org


------------------------------------------------------------
---------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: docbook-unsubscribelists.oasis-open.org
For additional commands, e-mail: docbook-helplists.oasis-open.org

Joachim Ziegler <zieglermpi-sb.mpg.de>,
2007-09-17 16:17 +0200:

> I want to start a new DocBook project from scratch,
using the usual Unix 
> toolchain (Emacs, XSLT stylesheets, xsltproc, Apache's
FOP etc.).
>
> Which version of DocBook should I use? The DTD or the
schema?

If it's a new project, you have little to lose and a lot to
gain
by using DocBook 5 (and the namespaced DocBook XSL-NS
stylesheets)
instead of DocBook 4.

> I have successfully worked on a DocBook project some
yeas ago, where I used 
> V4.3 and the toolchain as mentioned above. Is it worth
to upgrade my 
> knowledge? Are the tools stable enough to not get in
trouble with my 
> customer?

It's worth remembering that the non-namespaced DocBook 4
DTD/
schema has basically been end-of-lifed. There will be no
DocBook
4.6; all work on new markup features will go into DocBook
5+. So
starting your project with DocBook 5 now means that you
could be
saving time and money you'd need to spend later to migrate
your
legacy DocBook 4 documents to DocBook 5 (for example, to
take
advantage of new markup features supported only in DocBook
5).

The one potential downside of going with DocBook 5 is if you
or
others who will be working with the documents want to use
tools
and processing applications that don't support namespaces or
that
are hard-coded in some way to handle only some version of
DocBook
4 (for example, Adobe FrameMaker). But if you aren't using
such
tools yourself already and don't anticipate that others who
work
with your documents will be, then that's a non-problem.

  --Mike

-- 
Michael(tm) Smith
http://people.w3.org/mike/

http://sideshowbarker.net/