On Sat, Mar 03, 2007 at 11:16:53AM EST, ][ wrote: > On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:36:01 -0500, cga2000 wrote: > [..] > >> > >> AsciiDoc Markup Syntax Quick Summary > >> http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/nix/asciidoc-syn/ascs01-AsciiDocMarkupSyntaxQuickSummary/
A bit OT .. but what is this xpt project? Apart from the AsciiDoc manuals, there tons of useful documents on this web site. > > Actually, in my setup at least, the "Dark Background" document looks > > absolutely great in a text browser such as elinks. > > Have you check it out in GUI browsers as well, for the embedded images? They look ok, but I'm used to reading docs in text-mode and I find all the different size fonts, colors, little icons, etc. distracting. > > Maybe another concern of mine is that LaTeX and DocBook are technologies > > that won't go away any time soon.. And this guarantees that both the > > time I spend rewriting my .txt documents in either of these, and the > > time spent acquiring some fluency using them is not entirely wasted. > > > > Right now, my preference would probably be DocBook over LaTeX since it > > clearly separates content and formatting... > > Seems that I didn't make it quite clear. The above "AsciiDoc Markup Syntax > Quick Summary" shows how simple it is to produce stunning effects via just > plain text. It's not really plain text. More like a cross of a simplified markup language and a word processor. ie. the "tagging" is designed in such a way as to be less obtrusive and in a sense even somewhat "wysiwg". > In fact the source (for making the html or whatever) looks > nothing like any markup language but plain text. You almost don't need to > learn anything, well I mean the markup language -- just learn how to > format your text content. In this respect, I really don't see much difference between AsciiDoc's minimal syntax and using a minimal subset of LaTeX or DocBook. There is naturally more to type, parcticularly with XML and its opening and closing tags.. but then, I type reasonably fast and I'm sure there has to be some Vim plugin that would help make life easier for me. I admit that with AsciiDoc, source files are easier to read, especially for someone unfamiliar with the syntax .. But then contrary to using a subset of something much bigger such as LaTeX or DocBook, you're bound to lose "scalability". > Further, you can produce html or DocBook/LaTeX source from AsciiDoc, and > even *nix man pages. Saw that. See below. > All in all, check out > > AsciiDoc > http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/ > > and see if its simple formatting fits all your need for your simple > documentation framework, before submerging into something *much* more > complicated. If you stick with a small subset neither LaTeX nor DocBook are *that* hard to learn. My main problem, especially with DocBook, was finding exactly what debian packages I needed to build working html/pdf tool chains. > If it doesn't seem to meet all your need, I recommend to go directly to > Latex. Because the documents that you've seen on xpt.sourceforge.net and > AsciiDoc sites are actually produced by DocBook. You've lost me. Are you recommending LaTeX or DocBook? > On xpt.sourceforge.net the separated pages with TOC is produced by > DocBook (from AsciiDoc source). The single file versions are produced > directly by AsciiDoc. > > Check out the difference at > > http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/nix/asciidoc-usg/ascu03-SourceCodeHighlighting/ar01s04.html#id2497513 > > and compare with the "single file version" link from the bottom of the > page. > > If you do need Latex, then maybe the > > All You Need to Know about Latex > http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/language/latex/ > > might give you somewhat easier start. That is in fact what all I need to > know when writing my master thesis. Since I haven't found a tool that does that well, at least with my text files, I may yet invest in AsciiDoc a bit because I have numerous doc files in text format and I was wondering if it might help convert them to DocBook format. Obviously, it won't do it out of the box but I have a feeling that with minimal changes to my text files I may be able to do that. Thanks, cga -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
