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RenderX XEP 4.3

posted 08:11PM Apr 17, 2005 with tags by Lars Trieloff

Alexander Peshkov announces the availability of the XSL-FO-Engine RenderX XEP 4.3. New features include:
  • Section 508 support - XEP can now produce documents that are in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
  • Support for repeatable table headers and footers
The program is available at the RenderX store starting at 300 USD.

DocBook vs. DITA

posted 07:50PM Apr 17, 2005 with tags by Lars Trieloff

Nancy P. Harrison, member of the DocBook and DITA Technical Commitees has been one of the original DocBook developers and is now DITA architect at IBM. She compares DocBook and DITA with following words:
As someone involved with both DITA and DocBook, and having used both, I don't see incompatibility between them. Rather, I see two XML-based architectures developed independently to meet different objectives.
DocBook was developed to meet the needs of technical book publishers, for information designed around a hierarchical and linear model, hence the 'book' part of the name.
DITA, on the other hand, was designed around a topic-based, authoring model focused on reuse of information at the topic level.
Her conclusion is a good guide for making decisions between DocBook and DITA.
So, if you're authoring a book, with the book structure that implies, you're probably going to want to use DocBook; it supports a complete processing tool stream for authoring and publishing books in multiple formats.
If you're authoring topic-based information centers, especially where you need to reuse and reorganize your information for different audiences or information subsets, DITA is a better fit for that; it was designed for that use. And if you have a need to extend the information models to meet your specific purposes, DITA is also designed to enable that, while allowing reuse of your processing stream.
On the question of DocBook-DITA-Interoperability she writes:
The DITA community is interested in getting XSLT transforms created between DITA and DocBook, to enable interoperability of content created in either format. With good transforms, there could be some very useful 'hybrid' solutions; for example, maintaining a book's front matter and back matter in DocBook, while populating the body of the book, or even the body of individual chapters, with DITA topics nested and sequenced via a DITA map.

Update: See also Scott Hudson's post on DocBook vs. DITA

Using DocBook XML for Product Data Sheets

posted 07:22PM Apr 17, 2005 with tags by Lars Trieloff

SOC-IPc.com suggests to use DocBook XML for Product Data Sheets.
I think many companies should consider doing their SoC, ASIC or ASSP datasheet using the open DocBook format. DocBook is an SGML/XML specification published by the DocBook Technical Committee. Once you have the XML written you can transform it into nice looking HTML or PDF using free and open XSLT. DocBook can be used for books and papers and is particularly well suited for technically related works.
In fact DocBook is suided ideally for Product Data Sheets. Escecially when you combine it with an intelligent storage backend that allows you to track product version and variants.

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