SUO: HTML, XML, and DocBook for beginners
In some previous notes, I have made the claim that conventional word
processors (especially ones that use proprietary formats) are obsolete.
As a replacement, I recommended that people switch their word (or text)
processing methods to SGML and its derivatives, including HTML and XML.
Some people have challenged my claim, protesting that not everybody
is qualified to use such difficult tools. My response is that the
internal format (whether XML or proprietary) has no effect whatever
on ease of use. But it has an enormous impact on ease of exchange,
transmission, flexibility, reproducibility, and especially longevity.
As an example of longevity, I should mention that I have been using
GML (the predecessor to SGML) for nearly 30 years. And every one
of my GML files can be converted to HTML or SGML or XML with simple
global changes with any ASCII editor. (I have also automated
those changes with a very simple Python program.)
As an example of professional formatting, I would recommend that
people take a look at my 1984 book on Conceptual Structures, for which
I produced the camera-ready copy using only a plain-text editor and
a GML formatter. The quality of formatting on an IBM mainframe in 1983
is still superior to any commercially available word processor today.
Furthermore, with my handy-dandy Python program, I can convert any
chapter or page of that text to HTML. As an example, I recommend
my tutorial on math & logic, which is a revised and updated version
of Appendix A of that book:
http://www.bestweb.net/~sowa/misc/mathw.htm
Has anyone tried to convert any 10 or 15-year old file to MS Word?
Or has anyone tried to convert any version of MS Word to a version
that was two years older? Or four years newer?
For an easy intro to HTML, I recommend:
http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/htmldoc.html
For the newest version of StarOffice (the forthcoming 6.0), which
uses XML as its native format, and which can import files from more
versions of MS Word than any version of MS Word, and which runs on
many more platforms than MS Word, and which is, best of all, FREE:
http://www.openoffice.org/
And for professional-quality formatting of books and high-quality
web pages, I recommend DocBook (which also uses XML as its base):
http://www.docbook.org/
This is the formatting system that O'Reilley uses for all their
books, and it is being widely adopted by many other publishing
and documentation groups.
And best of all, these systems are all FREE, high-quality, universal,
non-proprietary, and guaranteed not to become obsolete in two years.
John Sowa