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DTDs for Internal IT Documents?

Posted by Cliff on from the defining-your-documents dept.

Saqib Ali asks: "A DTD (Documentation Type Definition) defines the document structure with a list of legal elements. DocBook DTD is being widely used in creating Linux related documentation. However I am looking for a XML DTD that is more suited to internal IT documentation, and easy to learn and use. Preferably I would like to use a DTD that can be used with OpenOffice. What DTDs are other Slashdot readers using for for internal IT documentation? I have created documentation using DocBook DTD and hosted them on a Apache Cocoon . Cocoon lets me transform the XML to HTML or PDF. I would like to keep the same backend infrastructure (i.e. Cocoon) but try out other DTDs that are suited for IT related documentation. Any ideas?"

4 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Why not Docbook? by molo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is there some reason why Docbook is insuffient? More info at www.docbook.org.

    -molo

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    1. Re:Why not Docbook? by Rheingold · · Score: 3, Interesting
      1. How about Simplified Docbook?
      2. Aside from its own document formats, DocBook is the only format OOo supports, AFAIK, so if that's important to you DocBook is the only option.
      3. I don't really know of any WYSIWYG editors that support anything else that's XML-based.


      In summary, I don't think there's a better solution than DocBook, despite the fact that it does not fulfill all of your requirements.

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  2. Skip XML for source. by FFFish · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Use ReST (ReStructured Text) and DocUtils. DocUtils outputs perfectly nice XML (ignore the HTML, LaTeX, and other options). It's then easy enough to use XSL:FO and FOP/XEP to transform the XML to PDF.

    Been using it for a year, and I'm absolutely flippin' delighted with it. Structured documentation that's both open-standard and imminently readable, yet delivers great PDFs.

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  3. Re:Why, O Why? by stonebeat.org · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Structure Documents. Structure Documents has it is own benefits:
    # "Write Once, Publish Anywhere" - You have only to prepare single documents; you can either use them as they are with stylesheets or convert them later to different physical media and formats, including plain text, XHTML and PDF.
    # Since your documents are in non-proprietary text format, you can edit them with any text editor, and assure their continuity and cross-platform compatibilty.
    # The physical layout of documents is separated from the content.
    # Retrieving specific information is very esay from structured document.

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