LDP Author Guide2004-07-15MarkF.Komarinskimkomarinski@wayga.orgJorgeGodoyConectiva S.A.Publishing Departmentgodoy@metalab.unc.eduDavidC.Merrilldcmerrill@mindspring.comEmma JaneHogbinemmajane@xtrinsic.com
This guide describes the process of submitting and publishing a
document with The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP). It includes
information about the tools, toolchains and formats used by TLDP.
The document's primary audience is new TLDP authors, but it also
contains information for seasoned documentation authors.
4.52004-07-14ejhUpdated information regarding CVS accounts and connecting to the CVS server.4.42004-04-19ejhAdded editor credit requirements to the Using DocBook
section. Updated the submission procedure. New documents can now only
be added by one of the Review Coordinators after the successful
completion of each of the required reviews.4.32004-04-04ejhRemoved the section Contributing to The
LDP (replaced by Summary of The LDP Process).4.22004-04-02ejhAdded references for LyX to DocBook conversions in the
bibliography.4.12004-01-27ejhUpdated the license requirements and added them to the
table of contents (moved them out of the sub-section).About this GuideAbout this GuideThis document was started on Aug 26, 1999 by Mark
F. Komarinski after two day's worth of frustration getting tools
to work. If even one LDP author is helped by this, then I did my
job.
Version 4 of this document was released in early 2004 by Emma Jane
Hogbin. A complete overhaul of the document was done to separate
the authoring HOWTOs from the technical HOWTOs. The review took
approximately eight months.
The newest version of this document can be found at the LDP
homepage
http://www.tldp.org.
The original DocBook, HTML, and other formats can be found there.
There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement
that do not require the ability to produce software. One such way is
to write documentation. The availability of
easy-to-understand, technically accurate documentation can make a
world of difference to someone who is struggling with Linux
software. This Guide is designed to help you research and write a
HOWTO which can be submitted to the LDP. The appendices also include
sample templates, markup tips and information on how to transform
your document from DocBook to another format (such as HTML) for
easier proofreading.
About The LDPThe Linux Documentation Project (LDP) was started to
provide new users a way of quickly getting information about a
particular subject. It not only contains a series of books on
administration, networking, and programming, but also has a large
number of smaller works on individual subjects, written by those
who have used it. If you want to find out about printing, you
get the Printing
HOWTO. If you want to do find out if your Ethernet card
works with Linux, grab the Ethernet
HOWTO, and so on.
The LDP provides documents to the world in a variety of
convenient formats and also accepts submissions in a
number of formats. The current standard for storing
the source documentation is a format known as DocBook, see .
LDP Manifesto located at http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.htmlThe Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is working on
developing free, high-quality documentation for the GNU/Linux
operating system. The overall goal of the LDP is to
collaborate in all of the issues of Linux documentation. This
includes the creation of HOWTOs and Guides. We hope to
establish a system of documentation for Linux that will be
easy to use and search. This includes the integration of the
manual pages, info docs, HOWTOs, and other documents.
The human readable version goes more like this: The LDP consists
of a large group of volunteers who are working on documentation
about Linux and the programs which run on the Linux kernel.
These documents exist primarily as shorter HOWTOs and longer
Guides. Both are available from .
This Guide focuses primarily on how to write your own HOWTOs for
submission to the LDP.
Feedback
Send feedback to discuss@en.tldp.org. Please reference the title
of this document in your email. Please note: you must be subscribed
in order to send email to the list.
Copyrights and TrademarksCopyright 1999-2002 Mark F. Komarinski, David C. Merrill, Jorge Godoy
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the appendix entitled
GNU Free Documentation License.Acknowledgments and ThanksVersion 1 - Version 3 Thanks
to everyone that gave comments as I was writing this. This includes David
Lawyer, Deb Richardson, Daniel Barlow, Greg Ferguson, Mark Craig and other
members of the discuss@en.tldp.org list. Some sections I
got from the HOWTO Index
and the sgmltools documentation. The sections on network access to CVS was
partially written by Sergiusz Pawlowicz
(ser@metalab.unc.edu). Sections on DocBook were written by
Jorge Godoy (godoy@conectiva.com). A great deal of thanks
to both of them for their help. Version 4
Thanks to Tabatha Marshall and Machtelt Garrels (Tille) for making sure I actually
finished the document. Thanks to my reviewers: Charles Curley, Martin
Brown and Tille; and to Saqib Ali for his on-line transformation and
validation tools. I have also incorporated a number of useful emails from the
LDP mailing lists. The original authors are credited within the document.
Special personal thank yous are extended to Steve Champeon for getting me
interested in markup languages and for being a wonderful mentor; and to my
partner, Graig Kent, for being outrageously supportive. [EJH]
Document ConventionsconventionsThis document uses the following conventionsPlease, take a look at the
source to see how to get
similar results on your documents. You should also remember that
the way this appears to you depends on the format in which you are reading
this document: online appearance is slightly different from the
PostScript or PDF ones.:DescriptionsAppearanceInformation requiring special attentionThis is a warning.CautionThis cautions the reader.HintThis is a hint.NotesThis is a note.File Namesfile.extensionDirectory NamesdirectoryCommands to be typedcommandApplications NamesapplicationPrompt of users command under bash shellbash$Prompt of root users command under bash shellbash#Prompt of user command under tcsh shelltcsh$Environment VariablesVARIABLEEmphasized wordwordQuoted textquoteCode ExampleparaBeginning and end of paragraphparaAuthoring TLDP Documents: An IntroductionSummary of The LDP Process
The following section outlines the process of creating and/or
maintaining a document for the Linux Documentation Project. This
section includes all steps--some of which may not be relevant to your
specific document.
Join the discuss mailing list. Authors who are interested in taking over
the maintenance of someone else's document should also join this list.
This is to make sure the LDP knows who is working on what documentation.
If you have not yet written your documentation, please review our
documents (current,
unmaintained
and in progress) and submit a proposal to the
list. Your proposal should include reasons why your document will be
different than those already in the collection; or identify a subject
that is currently missing from our documentation. For more information
about writing proposals, please read .
For more information about the mailing lists, please read or visit lists.tldp.org to subscribe.
If your document has already been written, please submit a copy to the
discuss list (or include the URL of where it can be found).
Write your document. If your document has not yet been written, please
be sure to email the discuss list before you start writing.
You may choose whatever format you feel most comfortable
in to write your document. If it is not one of the formats
accepted by the LDP a volunteer will convert it for you. For more
information on writing technical documentation, please read
.
If you are adding your own markup, you may also want to join the
docbook mailing list.
For more information about the LDP DocBook list please read
.
If you would like to start with a template, you may find the templates in
useful. There is also a general
introduction to markup in and a section
full of examples at .
Submit your document for technical, language and metadata reviews. Do this by
emailing your document to submit@en.tldp.org. In the
subject line be sure give the title of the document. In the body of the
email say that you are ready for the review process. Outline any
additional reviews your document may have already received. You should
be assigned a reviewer within the week. The reviews may take an
additional week each. For more information about this process, please
read .
If your document is not already in DocBook or LinuxDoc format, a
reviewer will convert it for you.
Once your document has been through each of the reviews a Review
Coordinator will add it to the CVS, update the version number to 1.0
and have the document published on the public Web site.
For more information about your final submission to the LDP, please
read .
If you don't submit your document in DocBook format
The volunteer adding markup to your document may choose any
accepted markup language. The Author Guide, however,
will refer only to DocBook. If you are submitting plain text or
some other format, please let the LDP know if you prefer to
maintain your document in either LinuxDoc or DocBook, which are the accepted formats for end-results.
Mailing ListsYou can subscribe to the following mailing lists:First is discuss@en.tldp.org, which is the main
discussion group of the LDP.Another is the docbook@en.tldp.org list, which is for
questions about DocBook use including markup and transformations. If you run into
trouble with a particular markup tag, you can send your question
here for answers.You can subscribe to either list by sending a request
message to either discuss-subscribe@en.tldp.org or
docbook-subscribe@en.tldp.org. The subject of your message should read
subscribe (no quotes). To
remove yourself from the list, send an E-mail with the subject of
unsubscribe to
discuss-unsubscribe@en.tldp.org or
docbook-unsubscribe@en.tldp.org.
If you are interested in DocBook beyond the simple markup of your
LDP document, you may want to consider joining one of the OASIS DocBook mailing
lists. Please see http://docbook.org/mailinglist/index.html
for more information.
Writing Your ProposalChoosing a Subject
It is likely that if you are reading the Author Guide, you already have a
subject in mind. The idea may have come from your own frustrations in
trying to get something to work; or maybe you are already writing or
have written documentation for other purposes and you want to submit
it to the LDP.
For example, if you posted a question to a mailing list
and it took many posts to resolve the problem -- that might be an incentive to write documentation.
Regardless of how you picked your subject, it is important that the LDP
community understand why your documentation should be included in its
collection. If someone has requested documentation, or you worked
with a mailing list to resolve a problem you should include the details in
your proposal to the LDP discuss mailing list. It may help others to
understand the need for your specific document.
Scope of Your Document
Now that you've got a subject, you will need to decide the
scope of the document. The scope or subject area
should be:
Clearly defined.
Define the boundaries of your
subject area before you begin. Do not repeat information that is in
another HOWTO and do not leave gaps of information between
your HOWTO and someone else's HOWTO.
Not too broad, and not too narrow.
If you try to cover too much information you may sacrifice depth.
It is better to cover a small subject area in detail than to cover a large subject
area poorly. Linux tools are known for doing exactly one
thing and doing that one thing well.
Similarly, your HOWTO should cover one subject and cover it
well.
If the scope of your proposed document is very narrow, it might be better to
include your information as part of another HOWTO.
This makes it easier for readers to find the HOWTO they need.
Search the LDP repository for topics which relate to your
document. If you find a document which is a good match, email the author
and ask them if they would like to include your contribution.
Undocumented.
Before documenting a particular subject, always do a web
search (and specifically a search within the LDP documents)
to see if your topic is already covered in another
document. If it is, refer to the other document instead of
duplicating the information within your own document. You
may wish to include a brief summary of information that
can be found in other documents.
If the HOWTO already in place is insufficient or needs updating,
contact the author and offer to help. See also for taking over old or unmaintained documents.
Most authors appreciate any help offered. Additionally, sending
comments and remarks to the author is usually regarded both as a
reassurance and a reward: to the author, feedback is the ultimate proof that writing the documentation was not a pointless effort.Pre-approved by the LDP.
Before you proceed with your HOWTO, post to the discuss list
and get some feedback from other LDP volunteers. Checking with the
list before you begin can save you headaches
later.
Stay in touch!
Joining the discuss list and following
it regularly, even if you never post, is a good way to stay current
on the activities, needs and policies of the LDP.
Documentation Templates
After you've decided the scope of your document you
should start to consider the type of document that you will write. There are
a number of different LDP documentation templates:
Guides, HOWTOs, man pages and FAQs. Rahul Sundaram
describes their scope in the Linux Documentation
Project (LDP) FAQ. Here is a brief overview of what they are
with pointers on how you can get started writing your own:
GuidesA guide covers a broad subject and is quite long. The Author
Guide (this document) is a guide. Other guides include:
Introduction to Linux: A hands on
guide,
The Linux Kernel
Module Programming Guide, etc. A full list of guides is
available from: Linux Project
Documentation Guides. Guides use the book
templates located in .
HOWTOsA HOWTO is typically a set of instructions that outlines,
step-by-step, how a specific task is accomplished. Examples of
HOWTOs are:
CDROM-HOWTOModule-HOWTO.
A full list of HOWTOs is available from: Single List of
HOWTOs (warning: it's a BIG page). HOWTOs typically use the
article template and are output to multiple HTML
pages by default.
Templates are available in .
man pagesman (Manual) pages are the standard form of help available for many
linux applications and utilities. They can be viewed by typing
man applicationname at a prompt. A full list of man
pages is available from:
Linux Man Pages.
Since man pages are bundled with software there is no LDP template
at this time.FAQsFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are a list of questions and
answers to help prevent new users from asking the same questions
over and over again.
A full list of FAQs is available from: Linux Documentation Project
FAQs. FAQs typically use the article
template with some specific DocBook elements to form the
Question/Answer structure.
You can find a template for writing a FAQ in .
mini-HOWTOs and HOWTOs
The LDP no longer distinguishes between HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs. All
previously written mini-HOWTOs have been included in longer HOWTOs.
All new documents must be at least HOWTO in length. This means the
documents should cover a bigger subject area rather than a small one. If
your document is very small you may wish to submit it for inclusion
in another, larger HOWTO that already exists. If you're not sure
what size your document is, email the discuss list and ask for
feedback.
Unmaintained and Out-of-date Documents
If you wish to become the owner for an unmaintained document there are
several steps you must go through.
Contact the author. Make sure the author no longer
wishes to maintain the document in question. Note that the E-mail address
shown may no longer be valid. In that case, try a search for the
author. If the original author of a document cannot be found after a good-faith effort,
let us know (feedback@en.tldp.org).
Determine if a more up-to-date copy of the document exists, outside
of what is available on the LDP. If so, try to secure a copy for yourself
to work on.
Inform the LDP which document you would like to maintain, so that we can
track who is working on what and prevent duplication of effort. We also
suggest that you join the LDP general discussion list
(discuss@en.tldp.org). This step is also required for new
documents.
Submit the document to the LDP with any intended modifications. Make
sure to continue to reference the original author somewhere within the
document (Credits, Revision History, etc.). Once the document is
re-submitted, we will remove the entry from the list of unmaintained
documents.
Feedback wantedSome of unmaintained documents may be outdated, or the content may be
covered in another (actively maintained) HOWTO. If that is the situation,
contact us (preferably on the discuss mailing list) and let us know.Developing an Outline
Before you actually begin writing, prepare an outline.
An outline will help you to get a clear picture of the subject matter
and allow you to concentrate on one small part of the HOWTO
at a time.
Unless your HOWTO is exceptionally small, your outline will probably
be multilevel.
When developing a multilevel outline, the top level should contain general
subject areas, and sub-headings should be more detailed and specific.
Look at each level of your outline independently,
and make sure it covers all key areas of the subject matter. Sub-headings
should cover all key areas of the heading under which they fall.
Each item in your outline should follow the item before it,
and lead into the item that comes next. For example, a HOWTO about a particular
program shouldn't have a section on configuration
before one on installation.You may choose to use the following outline for a HOWTO about
using a specific program:development historywhere to download the software fromhow to install the softwarehow to configure the softwarehow to use the softwareYou may find it helpful to try a little card
sorting at this stage of the writing process. Write all of your mini
subject areas onto pieces of paper. Now sort these pieces of paper into
main headings and their sub-sections. It may help to shuffle the slips of
paper before you start. This will help to give you a fresh set of eyes
while working.
When you are comfortable with your outline, look it over once more,
with a critical eye. Have you covered every relevant topic in
sufficient detail? Have you not wandered beyond the scope of the document?
It is a good idea to show your outline to others (including The LDP
discuss list) to get some feedback.
Remember: it is much easier to reorganize your document at the outline stage
than doing this after writing it.
Writing a HOWTO made easy
For help writing your HOWTO outline, and getting a head start on
the markup of your document, check out The LDP HOWTO
Generator. Note that this is for generating HOWTOs. Templates for FAQs and Guides are available in .
You're not alone
You might have noticed a theme developing here.
Just like Free software, Free documentation is best when you
release early, release often. The discuss list includes
many experienced LDP authors, and you would be wise to seek their
advice when making decisions about your contribution.
Research
While you are working on your outline you will most likely research
your topic--especially to confirm the document you are about to
write does not yet exist! Here are a few pointers that will keep
you from pulling out your hair later:
Compile your resources as you research.It is almost guaranteed you will not remember where to
find a critical piece of information when you need it most. It
will help to bookmark important (and even not so important)
pages as you go. Make sure the bookmark's title reflects why the
page is important to you.
If there are multiple key ideas in one page, you may want to bookmark the
same page with different titles.Assume your most important resource will disappear.The dreaded Error 404: Page not found. Even if you have
bookmarked a page it may not be there when you return to it. If
a page contains a really critical piece of information: make a
copy. You may do this by creating a text file with the title of
the document, the author's name, the page's URL and the text of
the page into a text file on your computer. You might also
choose to print the file to a PDF (save as or convert to PDF format will
capture the original URL on the page if you're using a smart
browser).Start your <quote>Resources</quote> page now.As you find pages of interest add them to a Resources
document. You may do this by exporting your bookmarks or by
keeping a separate text file with the Resources sorted by
sub-category. A little effort now will save you a lot of time
later.
There is more information about the DocBook markup of
bibliographies in .
Write down subject areas as you go.If you are card sorting you may find it particularly
useful to write topic cards as you find pages that cover that
specific topic. At the top of the card write the subject area.
In the main area of the card write a few notes about what you
might cover under this topic--include the titles of pages that
contain important information. If a sub-topic gets too big you
may want to divide it into multiple cards.Separate generic information from version-specific
information.A new version of the software that you describe might be released the day after you release your document.
Other things, like where to download
the software, won't change. Alternatively, you may
choose to document old problems with specific software as a way
of encouraging readers to upgrade to the latest version available:
Version X of the software is known for a specific bug.
The bug was fixed as of Version Y.Save all related emails.People will often have interesting insight into the
problem that you are writing about. Any questions that are asked
about your topic should be addressed in the final document. If
you are writing about software make sure to ask people what
system they are using. Add information in your document about
which system configurations your instructions have been tested
on. (Having lots of friends with moderately different
configurations can be very beneficial!)
All of these personal experiences can add
greatly to your final documentation.WriteWriting the Text
By now you should have organized your document; you collected bits of raw information
and inserted them into the outline.
Your next challenge is to massage all of the raw data you've collected
into a readable, entertaining and understandable whole. If you are
working from an existing document make sure any new pieces of
information are in the best possible places.
It has taken quite a bit of work to get to the point where you can
actually start writing, hasn't it? Well, the hard work begins to pay
off for you now. At this stage, you can begin to really use your
imagination and creativity to communicate this heap of information.
Don't be too clever though! Your readers are already struggling with
new concepts--do not make them struggle to understand your language
as well.
There are a number of classic guides to writing--many
of which are available on-line.
Their language will
seem old, but the messages are still valuable to authors today.
These are listed in . Also listed in the
resources section are a variety of sites that have
information specific to technical writing.
The Author Guide wouldn't be complete without
mentioning the Plain Language movement. Although
directed at simplifying government documents, Writing user-friendly
documents is quite useful. It includes before and after
writing samples. There's also a
PlainTrain
writing tutorial.
And any document that discusses writing for the web wouldn't be complete without
a nod toward useit.com.
The following articles may be of specific interest:
Writing for the WebInformation pollutionBe Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
There are many, many resources for writing web
documents--a quick web search for web
writing will find lots of resources.
Don't get too distracted, though: the ultimate goal is to
write, not to read about writing!
Writing Style and Style Guides
There are a number of industry style guides which define how language
should be used in documents. A common example for American English is
the Chicago Manual
of Style. It defines things like: whether a period (.) should be inside or
outside of quotes; and the format for citing
another document. A style guide helps to keep documents
consistent--most corporations will follow a style guide to
format media releases and other promotional material.
Style guides mays also define how words should be spelled
(is it color or colour?).
The LDP does not require a specific style
guide; however, you should use a consistent style throughout your
document. Your document should be spell checked for a single
language (e.g. American English vs. British English).
The Reviewer's HOWTO currently lists a number of
conventions for LDP documents and it is as close as it
gets to an official LDP Style Guide.
A personal glossaryIt helps to make a list of terms that you were new to you when you
first started researching and writing your document. You can refer to this
list while writing the text. You may also want to include it as a glossary in
your final document.
You can save yourself a lot of time in the editing phase if you
decide how you will write your document ahead of time. If you are
taking over someone else's document you may need to either: modify
your own style to fit the current document; or edit the
document so that it melds with the style you would like to
use from now on.
From a writing style perspective, use of the
first-person in a HOWTO adds to its charm--an attribute most
other documentation sorely lacks. Don't be afraid
to speak for yourself--use the word I to
describe your personal experiences and opinions.
On-line Writing Resources
In the
section, you will find a list of resources that cover the subject
better than this guide could hope to. Consult them, and follow their
advice.
Edit and Proofread the Text
Once you've written the text of your HOWTO, it is time
to polish and refine it. Good editing can make the
difference between a good HOWTO and a great one.
One of the goals of editing is to remove [extraneous] material that
has crept its way into your document.
You should go through your HOWTO carefully, and ruthlessly
delete anything that does not contribute to the reader's understanding
of the subject matter. It is natural for writers to go off on tangents
while in the process of writing. Now is the time to correct that. It
often helps to leave a bit of time between when you write a document
and when you edit it.
Make sure that the content of every section matches the title
precisely. It's possible that your original subject heading
is no longer relevant. If you've strayed from your original heading
it could mean one of the following: the original title was poorly
worded, the new material should actually go in a different section,
or the new material is not really necessary for your document. If you
need to change a title, check to see if the original subject heading
is still important. If it is, make sure that topic is covered somewhere
else in the document.
When editing and proofing your work, check for obvious mistakes,
such as spelling errors and typos. You should also check for deeper, but
less obvious errors as well, such as holes in the
information. If you are creating a set of instructions it may
help to test them on a new machine. Sometimes there
are packages that need to be installed which you've forgotten to
mention in your documentation, for instance.
When you are completely satisfied with the quality and accuracy of
your work, forward it to someone else for third-party proofing.
You will be too close to the work to see fundamental flaws.
Have others test the instructions as
well. Make sure they follow exactly what you have written. Ask anyone
who tests your documentation to make specific notes in any places
where they didn't follow your instructions (and the reason why they
didn't follow them). For example: I skipped step 2 because I
already have the required packages installed.
In a sense, editing is like code review in software development.
Having a programmer review their own code doesn't make much sense,
and neither does having a writer edit their own document.
Recruit a friend, or write the discuss list
to find a volunteer to proofread before submitting your document. You
may also want to submit your document to a mailing list that is
relevant to your document's topic. List members should be able to
help check the facts, clarity of your instructions and language of
the document.
Native speaker?
If you are writing in a language in which you are not fluent,
find an editor who is. Technical
documentation, more than any other type of writing, must use
extremely precise grammar and vocabulary. Misuse of language
makes your document less valuable.
Tools for Writing, Editing and Maintaining your DocumentReminder
You do not need to submit your
initial document to the LDP in anything more than plain text! The LDP
volunteers will convert your document to DocBook for you. Once it has
been converted you will need to maintain your document in DocBook format.
Editing Tools
You may use any word processing or text editing tool to write your
initial document. When you get to the markup stage you may want to use
a text editor which recognizes DocBook files. At a minimum a program
which adds syntax highlighting to your markup will make life a lot
easier. For a description of editors which can handle DocBook files
please skip to .
Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
The LDP provides optional CVS access to its authors. This enables
collaborative writing and has the following positive effects:
CVS will keep an off-site backup of your documents. In
the event that you hand over a document to another author,
they can just retrieve the document from CVS and continue
on. In the event you need to go back to a previous version of
a document, you can retrieve it as well. However difficult from an organizational point of view, it's great to have multiple people working on the same
document. CVS enables you to do this. You can have CVS tell you what changes were made by another author
while you were editing your copy, and
integrate those changes.CVS keeps a log of what changes were made. These logs (and
a date stamp) can be placed automatically inside your documents
when they are published.
CVS can be combined with scripts to automatically
update the LDP web site with new documentation as it's written
and submitted. This is not in place yet, but it is a goal.
Currently, CVS updates signal the HOWTO coordinator to
update the LDP web page, meaning that if you use CVS, you're not
required to e-mail your XML code. (Although you do
still need to send the submit list an email when you
are ready for your document to be published, because the whole publishing process has not been fully automated yet.)
For more information on how to use CVS to maintain your LDP
documents, please read .
Spell Check
Some writing tools will come with their own built-in spell
check tools. This list is only if your application does not
have a spell check option.
Spell Check Softwareaspell
This spell check application can work around XML tags. By
distinguishing between content and markup aspell is able to check
your content and ignore the bits it shouldn't be looking at. If you
are getting spelling errors in your markup tags you may be using an
old version and should upgrade.
The aspell command comes with the aspell package, included on most Linux distributions. Use the command as follows:aspell fileAn interactive user interface allows for fast and easy correction of errors. Use the to read more about aspell features.ispell
Similar to aspell, but tries to spell
check your markup tags. If you have a choice, use
aspell, if not,
ispell is a very acceptable substitute.
MarkupMarkup: A General Overview
A markup language is a system for marking or tagging a document to
define the structure of the document. You may add tags to your document
to define which parts of your document are paragraphs, titles,
sections, glossary items (the list goes on!).
There are many markup languages in use today. XHTML and HTML will be
familiar to those who author web documents. The LDP uses a markup
language known as DocBook. Each of these markup languages uses its own
controlled vocabulary to describe documents. For
example: in XHTML a paragraph would be marked up with the tagset
<p></p> while in DocBook a paragraph would be marked up
with parapara. The tagsets are defined in a quasi
dictionary known as a Document Type Definition (DTD).
Markup languages also follow a set of rules on how a document
can be assembled. The rules are either SGML (Standard Generalized
Markup Language) or XML (eXtensible Markup Language). These rules are
essentially the grammar of a document's markup. SGML and
XML are very similiar. XML is a sub-set of SGML, but XML requires more
precise use of the tags when marking up a document.
The LDP accepts both SGML and XML documents, but prefers XML.
There are three components to an XML/SGML document which is read by a
person.Content
As a TLDP author it is good to remember
that this is the most important piece. Many authors will
write the content first and add their markup later. Content
may include both plain text and graphics. This is the only part that
is required of LDP authors!
Markup
To describe the structure of a document a controlled
vocabulary is added on top of the content. It is used to
distinguish different kinds of content: paragraphs,
lists, tables, warnings (and so on). The markup must also conform to
either SGML or XML rules. If you are not comfortable
adding markup to your document, a TLDP volunteer will do it for you.
Transformation
Finally the document is transformed from DocBook to PDF, HTML,
PostScript for display in digital or paper form. This transformation is controlled
through the Document Style Semantics and Specification
Language (DSSSL).
The DSSSL tells the program doing the transformation how to
convert the raw markup into something that a human can read.
The LDP uses a series of scripts to automate these transformations.
You are not required to transform your own documents.
Content, markup and transformationsSteve Champeon does a great job of
explaining how content, markup languages, and transformations all fit
together in his article The
Secret Life of Markup. Although he is writing from an HTML
perspective, the ideas are relevant and there is an example of DocBook markup.DocBook: What it is and why we use it
According to the official DocBook web site,
DocBook.org
DocBook is a general purpose XML and SGML document type particularly well
suited to books and papers about computer hardware and software (though
it is by no means limited to these applications).
For the impatient
In the next sections we will be explaining about the theoretical side of DocBook, its origins, development, advantages and disadvantages. If you just want the practical side, check out these sections for an overview of HOWTO DocBook:
,
,
and
from this guide.
Although there are other DTDs used to write documentation,
there are a few reasons not to use them.
DocBook is the most
popular DTD, being
used by more than a dozen major open source projects from
GNOME to Python to FreeBSD.
The tools for DocBook
are more developed than others. DocBook support is
included in most Linux distributions, allowing you to
send raw files to be processed at the receiver's end.
And finally, DocBook
has an extensive set of tags (over 300 in all) which is
very useful when you are trying to describe the content
of a document. Fortunately for new authors the majority
of them do not need to be used for simple documentation.
Still not convinced? Eric
Raymond has written a DocBook
Demystification HOWTO which may help.
Convinced, but still not comfortable with the thought of
working with DocBook? Give David Lawyer's Howtos-with-LinuxDoc-mini-HOWTO
a try.
XML and SGML: Why we use XML
DocBook comes in a couple of different flavors--including both
XML and SGML formats. This means that you may use either the SGML
grammar/rules when adding markup, or you may use the XML grammar/rules.
Either way you may only use one set of rules throughout your document,
and you must define which one you are using at the top of your document.
The LDP prefers the XML flavor of DocBook. There are a number of
reasons for this including the following:
Libraries for handling XML files are developing at a
rapid pace. These utilities may make it easier for new
authoring tools to become available.
Many popular word processing programs are now creating
XML output. While it may not be DocBook XML, this does
make it easier for application writers to either add
DocBook XML support, or provide some method of translating
between their format and DocBook XML.
Everyone else is doing it. While this might not be a
real reason, it allows the LDP to keep up-to-date with
similar projects. Tools, procedures, and issues can be
worked out in a common framework.
Still not convinced? Fortunately the LDP does
accept a number of other file formats for input. The list of accepted markup
languages can be found in Markup Languages Accepted by TLDP
The LDP stores its documents in the following markup languages:
DocBook XML version 4.2 (preferred), 4.1.2
DocBook SGML version 4.2, 4.1, or 3.x
LinuxDoc SGML
New Documents
A new document may be submitted to the LDP in any format. Documents
which are not in DocBook or LinuxDoc will be converted by a volunteer.
The author is responsible for adding markup to any revisions which are
made.
Distributing Your DocumentationBefore Distributing Your Documentation
Before you distribute your documentation, there are a few more
things that you will need to check and possibly add to your document.
Spelling and Grammar Check
You can read more about helper applications in . You should also check your document for
its overall flow and clarity.
Abstract and Other Meta Data
Add a short paragraph which clearly defines the scope of your
document.
For more information on how to add this information using DocBook
please read Acknowledgments
Give credit where credit is due. For more information about when to
give credit, read .
License and Copyright
The LDP distributes documents, however, the author maintains the
copyright on the document. All documents accepted by the LDP must
contain a license and copyright notice. You can read more about this
in .
You may also want to add a Disclaimer, but this is optional. More
about this in .
Validate the Markup
If you are submitting a DocBook or LinuxDoc document, make sure the
markup is valid. Read why in .
Obtain Peer Reviews
You may want to have others review your document before
submitting it to the LDP. Ask people for a Peer
Review and/or a Technical
Accuracy Review. Since not all mailing lists will respond favorably
to attachments, you may wish to set up a temporary web site which houses your
document. Note: this is absolutely not required.
Licensing and Copyright In order for a document to be accepted by the LDP,
it must be licensed and conform to the LICENSE
REQUIREMENTS section of the LDP Manifesto located at http://www.tldp.org/manifesto.html.
We recommend using the GNU Free Documentation
License (GFDL), one of the Creative Commons
Licenses, or the LDP license (currently under review). The
full text of the license must be included in your document, including
the title and version of the license you are using. The LDP will not
accept new documents that do not meet licensing requirements.You can get DocBook markups of both the GNU GPL
and the GNU FDL from
the GNOME Documentation Project. You can then merely
include the license in its entirety in your document. A
DocBook-formatted copy of the license is available in
.
For more information about open source documentation and
licensing, please check .
CopyrightAs an author, you may retain the copyright and add other
restrictions (for example: require approval for any translations or
derivative works). If you are a new
maintainer of an already-existing HOWTO, you must include the
previous copyright statements of the previous author(s) and the
dates they maintained that document. DisclaimerIf you would like to include a disclaimer, you may choose
to use the following:
No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted.
Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk.
There may be errors and inaccuracies, that could be damaging
to your system. Proceed with caution, and although it is highly
unlikely that accidents will happen because of following advice
or procedures described in this document, the author(s) do not
take any responsibility for any damage claimed to be caused by
doing so.
All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners,
unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this
document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of
any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or
brands should not be seen as endorsements.
Licensing source codeIf your HOWTO includes bits of source code that you want others to use,
you may choose to release the source code under GPL.AcknowledgmentsYour document should have an Acknowledgments section,
in which you mention everyone who has contributed to your document in
any meaningful way. You should include translators and converters, as well as
people who have sent you lots of good feedback, perhaps the person who taught
you the knowledge you are now passing on, and anybody else who was instrumental
in making the document what it is. Most authors put this section at the end
of their document.
When someone else assists in the production of an
LDP document,
you should give them proper attribution, and there are DocBook tags
designed to do this. This section will show you the tags you should
use, as well as other ways of giving credit where credit is due.
Crediting editors is easy - there is already an
editortag in DocBook.
But there are two special cases where you need to credit someone,
but DocBook doesn't provide a special tag. These are translators
and converters.A converter is someone
who performs a source code conversion, for instance from HTML to DocBook XML.
Source code conversions help the LDP achieve long term goals for meta-data,
and allow us to distribute documentation in many different formats.Translators take your original document and translate it into other
human-readable languages, from English to Japanese for example, or from German
to English. Each translation allows many more people all over the world
to make use of your document and of the Linux operating system!
We recommend that
you acknowledge converters in the comment for the
initial version released in the new format, and
we recommend that you credit translators in each
version which they have translated.Acknowledgments translated in DocBookFor more information on how to add these credits using DocBook
please read TLDP Review Process
Before your document is accepted to the LDP collection it will undergo
at least three formal reviews. These reviews include a technical accuracy
review, a language
review and a metadata
review. All new documents must pass these reviews
before being accepted into the collection.
When you feel your document is finished, email a copy to the submit
mailing list. Please include the title of your document and
Final Review Required in the subject line of your email.
A team of volunteers will be assigned to your document for each of the
reviews. It may take up to a week to gather a team who is qualified to review your document.
Typically the technical review happens first, followed by the language
review and finally the metadata review. Your reviewers will read your document give you feedback on
whether or not they think your document is ready for publication in the
LDP collection.
Your reviewers may have specific points that must be changed. Once you
have made the changes submit your document back to your review team.
They will review the document again and advise you on whether or not
your document is ready for inclusion in the LDP collection. You may
need to undergo several edits before your document is ready. Or it may
not require any additional work. Be prepared to make at least one round
of changes for both the technical and language reviews. Ideally this
exchange will happen in the LDP's CVS to better track each of the
changes that are made, and keep track of the most current version of
your document.
Once your document has passed both the technical and language reviews,
you may submit it by following the instructions in .
For more information on what the reviewers will be looking for, please
read the Linux Documentation Project Reviewer HOWTO.
Submission to LDP for publicationThe final step
This section contains information on what to do after your
document has received both a technical and language review by the
LDP volunteers.
As part of the review process a Review Coordinator will add your
document to the CVS (including any associated image files) and
notify the submit mailing list that your document is ready for
publication.
If you do not already have a CVS account, please apply for one
when your document is submitted for publication. You can apply
for an account at: Maintaining Your HOWTO
Just because your document has now been published doesn't mean your
job is done. Linux documentation needs regular maintenance to make sure it
is up to date, and to improve it in response to readers' ideas
and suggestions. TLDP is a living, growing body of knowledge,
not just a publish-and-forget-it static entity.
Add relevant mailing lists to your document where people
can get support. If you have the time, follow these
mailing lists yourself to stay up-to-date on the
latest information.
Put your email address in the document, and politely request
feedback from your readers. Once you are officially published,
you will begin to receive notes with suggestions.
Some of these emails will be very valuable. Create a
folder in your mail program for
incoming suggestions--when the time is right review
the folder and make updates to your document. If you
are following a related mailing list you may also
choose to save a copy of important emails from the list to
this folder.
We're not a free support service, but...
Some people who email you will request personal
assistance. You should feel free to decline personal
assistance if you cannot spare the time. Writing a
contribution to the LDP does not commit you to a lifetime
of free support for anyone on the net; however, do try
to reply to all requests and suggest a mailing list that
will (hopefully) be able to provide support to your reader.
Fixing Errors
If you find an error in your own document, please fix it
and re-submit it. You can re-submit your files by emailing
them to submit@en.tldp.org. If you've been
using the CVS, you can simply cvs commit your revised document
and then send an email saying the new version is ready for
distribution. Remember to update the revision history at the
top of the document.
If you find an error in someone else's document please
contact the author of the document, or the LDP
coordinator at feedback@en.tldp.org and
mention the problem and how you think it needs to be
fixed.
Taking over unmaintained documentation
For more information on how to deal with unmaintained
documents, please read:
Unmaintained
(includes a list of steps to take to take over
ownership of unmaintained documents, and a
list of unmaintained documents).
ReferencesMarkup and general informationSecret Life of Markup, TheSteveChampeonProgressive Enhancement and the Future of Web Design
Where We Are Now
SteveChampeonSGMLDocBook ReferencesDocBook XML 4.1.2 Quick Start GuideJimWeller
Jim WellerDescribes how to install, configure and use the tools and resources for
DocBook XML 4.1.2. The purpose of this quick start guide is to get new
docbook authors, editors, and contributors up and running fast with the
DoocBook tools. These are powerful tool in the hands of an author. It
assumes a fair knowledge of building and installing source packages.
There are probably a million and one ways to accomplish my ultimate
goal of installing and using these tools. This one works well for
me.
Installing And Using An XML/SGML DocBook Editing Suite
Setting Up A Free XML/SGML DocBook Editing Suite For Windows And
Unix/Linux/BSDAshley J.S.Mills2002The University Of Birmingham
Getting Upto Speed With DocBookAshley J.S.Mills2002The University Of BirminghamDocBook: The Definitive GuideNormanWalshLeonardMuellner1999O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.1-56592-580-7O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.This book was released by O'Reilly in October 1999, and
is a great reference to DocBook. I have not found it to be a
great practical book. You can pick it up at the book vendor of
choice, and the entire book is also available online (in HTML and SGML
formats) at the above URL. Simplified DocBook: The Definitive GuideNormanWalshLeonardMuellner1999O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.Simplified DocBookXML Matters: Getting started with the DocBook XML
dialectFAQ for DocBook markupSingle-Source Publishing with DocBook XMLDanYork2002Dan York
DocBook Install mini-HOWTORobertEasterExploring SGML DocBookGiorgioZoppiLinuxDocHowtos-with-LinuxDoc-mini-HOWTODavidLawyerLinuxDoc-SGML User's GuideConverting Other Formats to DocBook
Converting HTML to Docbook SGML/XML Using html2db5-Minute Review: Using LyX for Creating DocBookDocument processing with LyX and SGMLLDP templates, tools & linksLDP Templateshttp://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resourcesContains links to SGML templates and their resulting HTML output
to help you see what your document will look like. Many of the tags
just need to be replaced with information unique to your HOWTO.
Also contains links to tools and other useful information.
Linux Documentation Project HOWTO Generator, The
This is a standalone web page with a number of fields to fill in
and a few buttons. When ready the compile button starts the
compilation of all the input fields and wraps it all in proper
LinuxDoc SGML, ready to process with the LinuxDoc SGML tools.
The compiled output is outputted to a read-only text area near
the bottom of the webpage, so the text has to be copied and
pasted into a file for compilation.
DocBook is not currently supported.
DocBook TransformationsDocBook XML/SGML Processing Using OpenJadeSaqibAliGeneral Writing Links and Style Guides
Guide to Grammar and StyleJackLynchPurdue's Online Writing Lab
Chicago Manual of Style
Plain Language ResourcesWriting User-Friendly Documents
This is quite useful. It includes before and after writing samples.
PlainTrain Writing TutorialWriting for the WebInformation PollutionBe Succinct! (Writing for the Web)Politics and the English LanguageGeorgeOrwellA classic text on writing.Elements of Style, TheStrunk and WhiteA classic text on writing.A Short Handbook and Style SheetThomasPinneyTechnical Writing Links
Technical Writing Tutorial
Strategies to succeed in technical writing
User Guides Online Tutorial
DMOZ Technical Writing Links
techwr-LTechnical Writing Links
An omnibus of links--scrounge for goodies.
Related TLDP Documents
Linux Documentation Project (LDP) FAQRahulSundaramLDP HOWTO-INDEXGuylhemAznarJoshuaDrakeGregFergusonSoftware: CVSCVS: Project ManagementByronClarkCVSAshley J.S.MillsAlan P.SextonCVS--Concurrent Versions SystemPascalMolliLearning About CVS Software: EmacsInformation about PSGML Emacs: The Free Software IDEEmacs/PSGML Quick ReferenceBobDucharmeNT Emacs InstallationCharlesCurleyCygwin Packages for DocBook AuthoringSGML for Windows NT
Setting up a free SGML/XML editing and publishing system on
Windows/Cygwin
MarkusHoenicka2000Markus HoenickaVimSteveOuallineXML Authoring ToolsSaqib's list of XML Authoring ToolsDocumentation LicensesLicensing HOWTOEricRaymondCatherineRaymond
Eric Raymond and Catherine Raymond
This document explains how U.S. copyright and licensing law applies to
open-source software projects. It compares the strengths and weaknesses of
the existing open-source licenses, and gives guidance on how to choose a
license for your project. It also explains the legalities of changing a
project's license. It suggests new practice for coping with today's
high-threat legal environment--this part is a must-read for all
project leaders.
OPLOpenContent officially closed June 30, 2003.
Creative CommonsGNU Free Documentation LicenseGNU General Public License
If you would like your documents to be included in the main Debian
distribution, you should use this license. It is not, however, the
LDP's license of choice.
Templates
The LDP stores its documents in the following markup languages:
DocBook XML version 4.2 (preferred), 4.1.2
DocBook SGML version 4.2, 4.1, or 3.x
LinuxDoc SGML
New Documents
A new document may be submitted to the LDP in any format. Documents
which are not in DocBook or LinuxDoc will be converted by a volunteer.
The author is responsible for adding markup to any revisions which are
made.
Most of the templates are available from the Author
Resources page. There are a few, additional, templates listed
here.
Book Templates
The following templates may be downloaded and used to create your
documents. Documents that are prefixed with a t- were provided by Machtelt Garrels (also known as
Tille, which is pronounced Tilly by the anglophiles). Thanks Tille!
Article <ulink url="http://tldp.org/authors/template/Sample-HOWTO.xml"/>
Most HOWTO documents will use this template.
Book <ulink url="t-book.xml"/>
Use this template to create a full book (like this Author Guide,
for instance).
Appendix <ulink url="t-appendix.xml"/>
Use this template to create an appendix. This list of templates
is an example of an appendix. Note the letters instead of the
numbers which are used to distinguish sections.
Chapters <ulink url="t-chap1.xml"/> and <ulink url="t-chap2.xml"/>
Two sample chapters for book documents. This template
is not required if you are using the article template.
Glossary <ulink url="t-glossary.xml"/>
For making glossaries.
FAQ <ulink url="t-faq.xml"/>
A standard article for writing a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list.
Disclaimer <ulink url="disclaimer.xml"/>
A standard disclaimer which warns readers that (1) your document may
not be perfect and (2) you are not responsible if things end up
broken because of it.
Style Sheets
The following style sheets can be used to make your document nicer to
look at. Remember that the LDP will use its own style sheets to
distribute your documentation.
DSL Style Sheet <ulink url="style.dsl"/>
This DSL style sheet was provided by Tille and is to be used with DSSSL
transformations.
Cascading Style Sheet <ulink url="style-ob.css"/>
This CSS file was provided by Saqib Ali and Emma Jane Hogbin. The
ob is for orange and blue. Use this CSS
file with an HTML file. Instructions are included in the CSS file.
GNU Free Documentation License
The GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License) is available in XML format
at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.xml. For a version in appendix format suitable for including
in your document, you can see get the XML for this document
from CVS at http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/guide/docbook/LDP-Author-Guide/fdl-appendix.xml.
TLDP template files for DocBook (XML and SGML) and Linuxdoc SGML are
available from the TLDP website at http://www.tldp.org/authors/index.html#resources.
System Setup: Editors, Validation and
TransformationsIn this section, we will cover some of the tools
that you may want to use to create your own LDP documentation.
If you use some other tool to assist you in writing
documents for the LDP, please drop us a line and we'll add
a blurb for it here. has contact
information.Tools for your operating
system
A few notes on setting up your system for DocBook
publishing. These tools focus more on the transformation
of documents from DocBook to XHTML (for example).
Tools For Your Operating SystemDebian
http://www.docbook.org/wiki/moin.cgi/DebianGnuLinuxPackages
Morgon Kanter
suggests apt-get install docbook-xml
docbook-xsl xsltproc as the minimum requirements.
Fedora (aka the new
RedHat)
Notes contributed by Charles
Curley.
Tools for Docbook SGML and XML are included in the distrubution. So
are Emacs and PSGML
mode, although you will have to customize your
.emacs. If you are missing a package after installing
Fedora, get familiar with yum or
apt.
Installation instructions: none; use Red Hat 9
until they are written: .
Mandrake
Notes contributed by Artemio.
In Mandrake (as of my current 9.2), all the
stuff including openjade, xmlto, docbook-utils
etc. comes as standard.
So I just needed to get the TLDP XSL sheet and
that's all. Didn't ever have any dependency
or other problems, everything works fine (knock
on wood :-)).
RedHat
According to Hal Burgiss, your system is likely
already ready to edit and process DocBook
documents without installing any additional
packages.
Editing tools
Editing tools have come a long way in their support for
XML (and specifically DocBook). There are two types of
editors outlined in this section: text editors (emacs,
vim, etc); and word processors (OpenOffice, AbiWord,
etc). New authors who are not comfortable working with
markup languages should probably choose a word processor
that can output DocBook files. For this reason the word
processors are listed first.
Although many editors can also validate your DocBook
files, this information has been separated into .
More info
Check the resources section for more .
Word Processors
Even if you are not comfortable working DocBook's tagset
in a text editor you can still produce valid DocBook
documents using a word processor. Support at this point
is very limited, but it does exist in the following
programs. The up side, of course, is that things like
spell check are built in to the program. In addition to
this, support for DocBook (and XML) is constantly
improving.
Converting Microsoft Word documents
Even if you want to use MS Word to write your documents, you may
find w2XML
useful. Note that this is not free software--the cost is around $130USD.
There is, however, a trial version of the software.
Work on the content!
Remember that all formatting changes you make to your
document will be ignored when your document is released
by the LDP. Instead of focusing on how your document
looks, focus on the content.
AbiWord
Through word of mouth I've heard that AbiWord can work (natively)
with DocBook documents. This will need to be tested by someone
(possibly me) and should definitely be included if it is
the case.
OpenOffice.orghttp://openoffice.org
As of OpenOffice.org (OOo) 1.1RC there has been support for
exporting files to DocBook format.
Although OOo uses the full DocBook document type declaration,
it does not actually export the full list of DocBook elements. It
uses a simplified DocBook tagset which is geared
to on-the-fly rendering. (Although it is not the official
Simplified DocBook which is described in .)
The OpenOffice simplified (or special docbook) is available from
http://www.chez.com/ebellot/ooo2sdbk/
.
Open Office 1.0.x
OOo has been tested by LDP volunteers with mostly positive
results. Thanks to Charles Curley
(charlescurley.com)
for the following notes on using OOo version 1.0.x:
Check the version of your OpenOffice
These notes may not apply to the version of OOo you
are using.
To be able to export to DocBook, you must have a Java runtime
environment (JRE) installed and registered with OOo--a minimum of
version 4.2.x is recommended. The configuration instructions will
depend on how you installed your JRE. Visit the OOo web site for
help with your setup.
Contrary to the OOo documentation, the Linux OOo did not come with
a JRE. I got one from Sun.
The exported file has lots of empty lines. My 54 line exported
file
had 5 lines of actual XML code.
There was no effort at pretty printing.
The header is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
The pull-down menu in the FileSave
As dialog box for
file format
indicates that the export format is DocBook (simplified). There is
no explanation of what that simplified indicates. Does OOo export
a subset of DocBook? If so, which elements are ignored? Is there any
way to enter any of them manually?
There is NO documentation on the DocBook export filter
or whether
OOo will import it again.
Conclusions: OOo 1.1RC is worth looking at if you want a word
processor for preparing DocBook documents.
However, I hope they cure the lack of documentation. For one
thing, it would be nice to know which native OOo styles map to
which DocBook elements. It would also be nice to know how to
map one's own OOo styles to DocBook elements.
Open Office 1.1Tabatha Marshall
offers the following additional information for OOo 1.1.
WordPerfect 9 (Corel
Office 2000)
http://www.corel.com/
WordPerfect 9 for the MS Windows platform has
support for SGML and DocBook 3.0. WordPerfect 9 for Linux has
no SGML capabilities.
If you are using WordPerfect on the Linux operating system, please
read: WordPerfect on
Linux FAQXMLmind's XML editor
Although strictly speaking, it is not a word processor,
XMLmind's XML editor allows authors to concentrate
on the content, and not the markup. It has built in
spelling and conversion utilities which allow you to transform your
documents without having to install and configure an additional
processing tool such as jade. There is a free standard
edition, which is a simplified version of their
professional edition.Text EditorsFor advanced writers
The tools outlined in this section allow you to work with
the DocBook tags directly. If you are not comfortable
working with markup languages you may want to use a word
processor instead. Word processors that support DocBook
are described in .
If you are comfortable working with markup languages and
text editors, you'll probably want to customize your
current editor of choice to handle DocBook files. Below
are some of the more common text editors that can, with
some tweaking, handle DocBook files.
Emacs (PSGML)psgmlEmacsEditorsEmacsEditorspsgml
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~lenst/about_psgml/
Emacs has an SGML
writing mode called psgml that is a
major mode designed for editing SGML and XML documents. It
provides:
syntax highlighting or pretty
printing features that make the tags stand out
a way to insert tags other than typing them by hand
and the ability to validate your document while writing
For users of Emacs, it's a great way to go.
PSGML works with DocBook, LinuxDoc and other DTDs equally well.
Verifying PSGML is Installed
If you have installed a recent distribution, you may
already have PSGML installed for use with Emacs. To check,
start Emacs and look for the PSGML documentation (Chimpsgml).
Dependencies
If you don't have PSGML installed now might be a good
time to upgrade Emacs. The rest of these instructions
will assume you have PSGML installed.
Configuring Emacs for Use With PSGML
If you want GNU Emacs to enter PSGML mode when you open
an .xml file, it
will need to be able to find the DocBook DTD files.
If your distribution already had PSGML set up for use
with GNU Emacs, you probably won't need to do anything.
Tuning Emacs
For more information on how to configure Emacs, check out
.
Once you've configured your system to use PSGML you will
need to override Emacs' default sgml-mode with the
psgml-mode. This can be done by configuring your
.emacs file. After you've edited the
configuration file you will need to restart Emacs.
Creating New DocBook XML Files
There are a number of steps to creating a new DocBook XML
file in Emacs.
Create a new file with an
xml
extension.
On the first line of the file enter the doctype for the
version of DocBook that you would like to use.
If you're not sure what a doctype is all about, check
Enter
CcCp.
If Emacs manages to parse your DTD, you will
see Parsing prolog...done
in the minibuffer.
Enter
CcCeEnter
to auto-magically insert the parent element for your
document. (New authors are typically writing
articles.)
If things are working correctly, you should see new tags
for the parent element for your document right after the
document type declaration. In other words you should now
see two extra tags:
article
and
article
in your document.
Spell Checking in Emacs
Emacs can be configured to use aspell
by adding the following to your ~/.emacs file.
Thanks to Rob Weir for
this configuration information.
;; Use aspell
(setq-default ispell-program-name "aspell")
;;Setup some dictionary languages
(setq ispell-dictionary "british")
(setq flyspell-default-dictionary "british")
VIMvimEditorsvimhttp://www.vim.org
No mention of text editors is complete
without talking about vi.
The VIM (Vi IMproved)
editor has the functionality of
regular vi and includes syntax
highlighting of tags.Getting Started
There are many versions of vi.
New authors will likely want one of the more
feature-packed versions for syntax highlighting and
a graphical interface including mouse control.
Red Hat users will want the following packages:
vim-common, vim-minimal and vim-enhanced.
Debian users will want the following package: vim.
For an X interface (including GUI menus and
mouse control) users will want
gvim. The g in gvim is for
Graphical.
VIM compiles very easy should you need to build your own. Both vim and gvim are built by default. Syntax highlighting is included but not enabled by default if you have to start from scratch; use the :syntax enable command in VIM to turn this feature on.
Creating New DocBook XML Files
In both vim and
gvim, .xml files will be
recognized and enter into SGML mode.
A series of known DocBook tags and attributes have
been entered into vim
and will be highlighted one color if the name is known
and another if it is not (for this author the colors are yellow and blue).
Having the
correct document type declaration at the top of your
document should add the syntax highlighting.
If you do not see this highlighting you will need to
force VIM into SGML mode (even for XML files) using the
command :set ft=sgml. If you are
working with multiple files for a single XML document you
can add your document type in <-- comments --> to
the top of the file to get the correct syntax
highlighting (you will need to restart the program to see
the change in highlighting). The top line of this file
(tools-text-editors.xml) looks like this:
-->
]]>
Spell Check
As in Emacs,
Vim, will work quite happily with
aspell. It can be run from within Vim
with the following:
:! aspell -c %.
For more sophisticated spell check alternatives, give Cream or vimspell a try.
Tag Completion
The following information is provided by Kwan Lowe.
Vim has a DocBook helper script which can be easily copied into
your .vimscripts
directory and used to auto complete tags while
writing DocBook documents. The script can be downloaded from:
.
Grab the file, then untar it. Copy the
dbhelper.vim to your .vimscripts directory if you have one.
$ mkdir.vimscripts$ cpdbhelper.vim.vimscripts
You'll also have to convert the dbhelper.vim file to unix formatting:
$ dos2unixdbhelper.vim
Next, edit your .vimrc file and add the line:
source
/home/yourname/.vimscripts/dbhelper.vim
To use the scripts, enter vi and go into insert mode. Press
, (comma) followed by the shortcut. For example:
,dtbk
epcEditepcEditEditorsepcEdit
http://www.tksgml.de
The epcEdit program allows you to edit XML files.
It has the advantages of not needing to know Emacs or
vi before starting, and is cross-platform, working in both
Windows and Linux. This is a commercial application, and
pricing can be found at
http://www.tksgml.de/pricing.html
Along with visual editing, epcEdit will also validate
documents on loading, and on demand by using the DocumentValidate
command.epcEdit screen shotThe screen shot of the epcEdit
program shows a
tree on the left side that has the document in a
hierarchy, while the right side shows the document.
Tags are shown with a gray background.neditneditEditorsnedit
http://nedit.org
To be fair, nedit is more
for programmers, so it might seem a bit of overkill for new
users and especially non-programmers. All that aside, it's
extremely powerful, allowing for syntax highlighting. Unlike
epcEdit, nedit doesn't allow you to automatically insert tags
or automatically validate your code. However, it does allow
for shell commands to be run against the contents of the
window (as opposed to saving the file, then checking).
nedit screen shotThe nedit program can provide line numbers
across the left side of the screen, handy for when
nsgmls complains of errorsUsing neditWhen you open your DocBook file, nedit should already
have syntax highlighting enabled. If it does not you can
turn it on explicitly using:
PreferencesLanguage ModeSGML HTML
If you have line numbers turned on (using
PreferencesShow
Line Numbers) then finding
validation errors is much simpler.
nsgmls, the validation tool
we'll use, lists errors by their line number.
Configuring nedit
Since you can feed the contents of your window to
outside programs, you can easily extend nedit to perform
repetitive functions. The example you'll see here is to
validate your document using
nsgmls.
For more information about nsgmls and validating
documents please read .
Select PreferencesDefault
SettingsCustomize
MenusShell
Menu.... This will bring up the
Shell Command dialog box, with all the shell commands nedit
has listed under the
Shell menu.
Under
Menu Entry, enter Validate DocBook. This will be the entry
you'll see on the screen.
Under Accelerator, press
AltS.
Once this menu item is set up, you can press
AltS
to have the Validate DocBook automatically run.
Under Command
Input, select window, and under Command Output, select
dialog.
Under Command to Execute, enter
nsgmls
-sv. Using
-v outputs the version number
is output to the screen so that you know the command
has run.
Check the PATHNote
that nsgmls has to be in your
PATH for this to work properly.
Adding shell commands to nedit
Click OK and you'll now be back
at the main nedit screen. Load up an XML file, and select
ShellValidate
DocBook or press
AltS.
The nedit program will fire up and check
the contents of the window.
If all you see is a version number for
nsgml then your
document is valid. Any errors are reported by line
number in your document.
<application>nsgmls</application> output on successIf nsgmls reports
success, it merely reports the version of
nsgmlsMorphon XML editor
http://www.morphon.com/xmleditor/index.shtml
This is a commercial application which is currently
available for free (with an optional user registration).
It is written in Java, allowing it to run on any platform
that has a Java Virtual Machine (that is, works in both
Windows and Linux).
On the plus sides of XMLEditor is the left side of the
screen shows the hierarchy of the document (starting with Book
and so on). Selecting an item in the list brings you to that
part of the document so you can edit it. The right part of the
screen shows the text without any markup or tags being shown.
If you have external files as ELEMENTS (as the LDP Author Guide
does), XMLEditor will follow the links and load the files, so
you always work on the entire work. On the minus side of this,
you will get errors if a file is missing.
XMLmind XML Editor (XXE)
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor
David Horton offers the following information:
I am a big fan of XMLMind's XXE editor and XFC FO converter.
It is free as in beer, but not necessarily
free as in speech. Very liberal license for personal use
however. It's Java-based so it works on all sorts of OS's.
Useful markupDescriptionSample markupResultE-mail addressemailaddress@domainemailaddress@domainAbout the authorauthor...author(see example below)Author's namefirstnameMaryfirstnameothernameMargaretothernamesurnameO'HarasurnameMaryMargaretO'HaraKeys' name (printings on the keyboard)keycapF1keycapF1Symbol represented by the keyskeysymKEY_F1keysymKEY_F1Key's codekeycode0x3Bkeycode0x3BCombinations or sequences of keyskeycombokeycapCtrlkeycapkeycapSkeycapkeycomboCtrlSProgram MenusguimenuFileguimenuFileMenu ItemsguimenuitemSaveguimenuitemSaveMenu SequencesmenuchoiceshortcutkeycombokeycapCtrlkeycapkeycapSkeycapkeycomboshortcutguimenuFileguimenuguimenuitemSaveguimenuitemmenuchoiceCtrlSFileSaveMouse ButtonmousebuttonleftmousebuttonleftApplication NamesapplicationapplicationapplicationapplicationText Bibliographical ReferencecitationreferencecitationreferenceQuoteblockquoteattributionText AuthorattributionparaQuote Text.parablockquote
Text AuthorQuote Text.
Index(NA)See .File NamesfilenamefilefilenamefileDirectoriesfilename id="directory"directoryfilenamedirectory/Emphasize TextText can be emphasized in a few ways. The most
common ways are italics and bold. DocBook, however, supports only
italics. The use of bold requires additional settings on the
style sheet used.emphasistextemphasistextFootnotesfootnoteparaFootnote textparafootnote(See note at the end of this table for an example)URLsulink url="http://www.conectiva.comConectiva S.A.Conectiva S.A.Itemized (unnumbered) ListitemizedlistlistitemparaitemparalistitemlistitemparaitemparalistitemitemizedlistitemitemOrdered (numbered) ListorderedlistlistitemparaitemparalistitemlistitemparaitemparalistitemorderedlistitemitemSegmented ListsegmentedlisttitleBinary to decimal conversiontitlesegtitleBinarysegtitlesegtitleDecimalsegtitleseglistitemseg00segseg0segseglistitemseglistitemseg01segseg1segseglistitemseglistitemseg10segseg2segseglistitemsegmentedlistBinary to Decimal ConversionBinaryDecimal000011102Variable ListvariablelistvarlistentrytermEntry 1termlistitemparaDescriptionparalistitemvarlistentryvarlistentrytermEntry 2termlistitemparaDescriptionparalistitemvarlistentryvariablelistEntry 1DescriptionEntry 2DescriptionSimple Listssimplelist type="horiz" columns="3"member1membermember2membermember3membermember4membermember5membermember6membersimplelistsimplelist type="inline"memberAmembermemberBmembermemberCmembermemberDmembermemberEmembermemberFmembersimplelist123456ABCDEFPictures(NA)See GlossaryglossentryglosstermTermglosstermglossdefparaDefinitionparaglossdefglossentry(See the glossary at the end of this document)Crossed Referencessection id="secao"
...
sectionsection id="reference the other section"
...
paraPlease, seexref linkend="secao" / for more information.(NA)
<sgmltag class="starttag">section</sgmltag> and <sgmltag class="starttag">sectN</sgmltag>: what's the difference?Acknowledgment
These notes were provided by:
John Daily and
Saqib Ali (saqib@seagate.com).
section versus sectN is largely a
question of flexibility. The stylesheets can make a
section in a section look just
like a sect2 within a sect1, so there's no output advantage.
But, a section within a
section can be extracted into its own
top-level section, nested even more deeply, or moved to an
entirely different part of the document, without it and its own
section children being renamed. That is not true of the
numbered section tags, which are very sensitive to
rearrangements. This can be easier for authors who are new to
DocBook than using sectN.
The main idea behind creating structured data is that it should be easy
to access and query. One should be able to retrieve a subsection of any
structured data, by using querying languages for XML (XPath and XQuery).
sectN are useful when traversing a document using XPath/XQuery.
sectN gives more flexibility, and control while writing an XPath
expression.
A well-defined, valid and well-structured document makes it easier for
one to write XPath/Query to retreive specific data from a document.
For example you can use XPath to retrieve information in the
sect3 block with certain attributes.
However if you just used section for all subsections,
it becomes harder to retrieve the block of information that you need.
So which one should you use? The one you feel most
comfortable with is a good place to start. This document
is written with sections. You may,
or may not, think this is a good idea. :)
Command Prompts
There are likely as many ways of doing this as there are DocBook
authors; however, here are two ways that you might find useful.
Thanks to Y Giridhar Appaji Nag
and
Martin Brown
for the markup used here.
Command Prompt with <sgmltag>programlisting</sgmltag>programlistingprompt# promptuserinputcommandcdcommand /some/diruserinputprompt# promptuserinputcommandlscommand -luserinputprogramlistingDisplays as:# cd /some/dir# ls -lCommand Prompt with <sgmltag>screen</sgmltag>
First create a general entity in the internal subset at the very
beginning of your document. This entity will define a name for the
shortcut which you can use to display the full prompt at any point
in your document.
<!ENTITY prompt "<prompt>[user@machine
~/dir]$</prompt>">
For more information about entities, read .
screen
&prompt; userinputcd /some/diruserinput
&prompt; userinputls -luserinputscreenDisplays as:[user@machine ~/dir]$ cd /some/dir[user@machine ~/dir]$ ls -l
If you would like to add the output of your commands you can add
computeroutput textcomputeroutput within the
screen or programlisting
as appropriate.
Encoding IndexeseditionindexThe generation of indexes depends on the markups inserted in
the text.Such markups will be processed afterwards by an external
tool and will generate the index. An example of such a
tool is the collateindex.pl script
(see ). Details about the
process used to generate these indexes are shown in .The indexes have nesting levels. The markup of an index is
done by the code .Code for the generation of an indexindextermprimaryMain levelprimarysecondarySecond levelsecondarytertiaryThird leveltertiaryindextermIt is possible to refer to chapters, sections, and other
parts of the document using the attributezone.Use of the attribute <sgmltag class="attribute">zone</sgmltag>section id="encoding-index"titleEncoding Indexestitleindexterm zone="encoding-index"primaryeditionprimarysecondaryindexsecondaryindextermpara
The generation of indexes depend on the inserted markups on the text.
paraThe has the code used to
generate the entry of this edition on the index. In fact, since
the attribute zone is used,
the index statement could be located anywhere in the document or
even in a separate file. However, to facilitate maintenance the entries for the index
were all placed after the text to which it refers. Usage of values <sgmltag class="attvalue">startofrange</sgmltag> and <sgmltag class="attvalue">endofrange</sgmltag> on the attribute<sgmltag class="attribute">class</sgmltag>paraTyping the text normally
sometimes there's the need of
indexterm class="startofrange"
id="example-band-index"primaryexamplesprimarysecondaryindexsecondaryindexterm mark large amounts of
text.paraparaKeep inserting the paragraphs
normally.paraparaUntil the end of the section
intended to be indexed. indexterm
startref="example-band-index" class="endofrange".
paraInserting PicturesgraphicsinsertinggraphicfiguresinsertingfigureIt is necessary to insert pictures formats for all possible
finished document types. For example: JPG files for web pages and EPS
for PostScript and PDF files.If you use the TeX format you'll need the images as
a PostScript file. For on-line publishing you can use any
kind of common image file, such as JPG,
GIF or PNG.
The easiest way to insert pictures is to use the fileref attribute. Usually pictures are
generated in JPG and in PostScript (PS or EPS).
Inserting a picturefiguretitlePicture's
Titletitlegraphic fileref="images/file"graphicfigureReplacing figure by
informalfigure eliminates the
need to insert a title for the picture.There's still the float
attribute on which the value 0 indicates that
the picture should be placed exactly where the tag appears. The
value 1 allows the picture to be moved to a
more convenient location (this location can be described on the
style sheet, or it can be controlled by the application).Graphics formats When
submitting graphics to the LDP, please submit one
set of graphics in .eps, and
another in .gif,
.jpg or .png. The preferred format is
.png or .jpg due to patent problems with
.gif.
You can use .jpg files for
continuous-tone images such as photos or images with gradual
changes in color. Use .png
for simple images like diagrams, some screen shots, and images
with a low number of colors. Alternative MethodsgraphicsinsertingmediaobjectfiguresinsertingmediaobjectThe first alternative to
is to eliminate the figure or
informalfigure elements.Another interesting alternative when you have
decided to publish the text on media where pictures
are not accepted, is the use of a wrapper, imageobject.Using <sgmltag class="starttag">imageobject</sgmltag>figuretitleTitletitlemediaobjectimageobjectimagedata fileref="images/file.eps" format="EPS"imageobjectimageobjectimagedata fileref="images/file.jpg" format="JPG"imageobjecttextobjectphraseHere there's an image of this examplephrasetextobjectcaptionparaImage Description. Optional. paracaptionmediaobjectfigureFiles using the following formats are available BMPCGM-BINARYCGM-CHARCGM-CLEARDITROFFDVIEPSEQNFAXGIFGIF87AGIF89AIGESJPEGJPGLINESPECIFICPCXPICPSSGMLTBLTEXTIFFWMFWPG.This method presents an advantage: a better
control of the application. The elements imageobject are consecutively tested
until one of them is accepted. If the output format does not
support images the textobject
element will be used. However, the biggest advantage in usage
of the format
is that in DocBook 5.0, the graphic element will cease to
exist.As a disadvantage, there is the need for more than one
representation code of the same information. It is up to the
author to decide how they will implement illustrations and
pictures in the document, but for compatibility with future
versions I recommend the use of this method
for pictures and graphics.Title page exceptionmediaobjects will not display if they are
used on a title page. For more information read:
ASCII Images
You may also want to try converting your image to an ASCII
representation of the file. JavE
(Java ASCII Versatile Editor) can do this conversion for you.
It can be downloaded from . It has an easy to use GUI interface.
If you're more command-line oriented you may want to try:
tgif
() and
AA-Lib ().
Markup for MetadataCrediting Translators, Converters and Co-authorsThere are several ways that these folks, as well as other
contributors to your document, can be given some recognition for
the help they've given you.<sgmltag class="starttag">othercredit</sgmltag>All translators, converters and co-authors
should be credited with an
othercredit tag entry.
To properly credit a translator or converter, use the othercredit tag with
the role
attribute set to converter or
translator,
as indicated in the example below:Other Creditothercredit role='converter'firstnameDavidfirstnamesurnameMerrillsurnamecontribConversion from HTML to DocBook v3.1 (SGML).contribothercreditCrediting Editors and Reviewers
To help track the review process all new documents must include a
reference to the reviewers for the technical,
language
and metadata
reviews.
EditoreditorfirstnameTabathafirstnamesurnameMarshallsurnamecontribLanguage review of version 0.8contribeditor<sgmltag class="starttag">revremark</sgmltag>sWithin the revision
tag hierarchy is a tag called revremark. Within this tag,
you can make any brief notes you wish about each
particular revision of your document. Revision History The revhistory tag should be used to denote
the various revisions of the document. Specify the date, revision
number and comments regarding what has changed.
Revisions should be listed with the most-recent version at the
top (list in descending order).
Date formats The pubdate tag in your header should list
the publication date of this particular version of the document
(coincide with the revision date). It should be in the following
format: pubdate2002-04-25pubdate
The date is in the format YYYY-MM-DD, which is one of the ISO 8601
standard formats for representing dates. For you Yanks out
there (me too), think of it as going from the largest unit of
time to the smallest.
Sample Article (or Book) Information Element Here is a sample of a complete DocBook (SGML or XML)
articleinfo element
which contains some of the items and constructs previously
described. Sample Meta Data
]]>
articleinfo
<!--
Use "HOWTO", "mini HOWTO", "FAQ" in title, if appropriate
-->
titleSample HOWTOtitleauthorfirstnameYour FirstnamefirstnamesurnameYour Surnamesurnameaffiliationaddressemailyour emailemailaddressaffiliationauthoreditorfirstnameTabathafirstnamesurnameMarshallsurnamecontribLanguage review of version 0.8contribeditorothercredit role='converter'firstnameDavidfirstnamesurnameMerrillsurnamecontribConversion from HTML to DocBook v3.1 (SGML).contribothercreditpubdateYYYY-MM-DDpubdaterevhistoryrevisionrevnumber1.0revnumberdateYYYY-MM-DDdateauthorinitialsABCauthorinitialsrevremarkfirst official releaserevremarkrevisionrevisionrevnumber0.9revnumberdateYYYY-MM-DDdateauthorinitialsABCauthorinitialsrevremarkFirst draftrevremarkrevisionrevhistory
<!--
Provide a good abstract; a couple of sentences is sufficient
-->
abstractpara
This is a sample DocBook (SGML or XML) HOWTO which has been
constructed to serve as a template.
paraabstractarticleinfoBibliographies
Not everyone will choose to use the correct formatting for a
bibliography. Most will use a list of some kind. And that's ok. But
when you're ready to move to the next level, here's how to do it.
Below are two examples of bibliographic entries. The first is a very
simple entry. It has only a title, URL and possibly a short
description (abstract). The second is a little more complex and is
for a full entry (for instance a book) with an ISBN, publisher and copyright
date.
DocBook requirements for bibliographic references
At least one element within biblioentry is
required, but it doesn't matter which one you have. So you might
have a title, or a URL (bibliosource), or an
author, or, ...
For a full list of all options, visit . For
more examples visit .
Displaying <sgmltag class="starttag">abstract</sgmltag> content
By default abstracts do not display on web
pages. You need to modify the biblio.xsl file.
Do a search for the word abstract and then add
this information inside the <xsl:template> tags. If that
doesn't make sense, don't worry about it too much, but do be
aware that it's required for the abstracts to show up.
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="{name(.)}">
<xsl:apply-templates mode="bibliography.mode"/>
</div>
A BibliographybibliographytitleBibliography titletitlebibliodivtitleSection titletitlebiblioentrytitleBook or Web Site Titletitlebibliosourceulink url=""bibliosourceabstractabstractbiblioentrybiblioentrytitletitlebibliosourceulink url=""bibliosourceauthorfirstnamefirstnamesurnamesurnameauthorcopyrightyearyearholderholdercopyrighteditorfirstnamefirstnamesurnamesurnameeditorisbnisbnpublisherpublishernamepublishernamepublisherabstractabstractbiblioentrybibliodivbibliography
View to see this in action.
Entities (shortcuts,
text macros and re-usable text)entitiesparametersusage
There may be some segments of text, or markup
that you want to use over and over again. Instead
of typing it up multiple times (and then having
to edit it multiple times if you want to make
a change) you can use external
entities. Entities can give you a short
cut to:
re-using whole documents, text snippets, and
special markup. Some common ways to use an
entity would be for:
text macros
for markupAn example would be a company
URL. By using a parameter entity you
could refer simply to &my-company-url;
instead of typing out the full <ulink
url="http://foo.bar">Foo.bar</ulink>
each time. software
licenseSuch as the GNU Free
Documentation License: it is long. And must
be included in full in each document. By
leaving the license in a separate file you can
easily include it in many documents without
having to redo the markup each time. repeated
textFor instance an introduction to a
topic which is included both as a summary in
one section and as an introduction to the full
information in another. Saves on editing time if
you need to make changes to both sets of text.
Adding
Entities
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
<-- I can add comments here -->
<!ENTITY shortcut "Replace 'shortcut' with this text.">
<!ENTITY sc-to-a-file SYSTEM "anotherfile.xml">
<-- note: the square bracket on the third line is closed on the next
line--> ]>
To use these entities simply insert the name
you gave the entity between a & (ampersand) and a ; (semicolon). For
example: &shortcut; would expand into Replace
'shortcut' with this text; &sc-to-a-file;
would include the full contents of whatever
is in anotherfile.xml.
An important feature while writing a text is the ability to
check whether or not it will be presented in the final draft. It is
common to have several parts of the text marked as draft,
especially when updating an already existing document.With the use of parameter entities, you can include or
eliminate these drafts by altering only one line at the beginning
of a document.Use of parameter entities!ENTITY % review "INCLUDE" ...
![%review;[ <para>This paragraph will
be included on the draft when the entity "review" is defined with the
value "INCLUDE". </para> ]]entitiesparametersexampleThe entity review might have several texts
defined, as in . When the
changes to the text are considered final, you need only to remove
parts of the text between the 3rd.
and 6th. lines.To keep the draft definitions and hide the text in the
final draft, just alter the specification of the entity from
INCLUDE to IGNORE.Customizing your HTML filesHTML file namesBy default,
when separate HTML files are made, the SGML processor will assign
arbitrary names to the resulting files. This can be confusing
to readers who may bookmark a page only to have it change.
Whatever your reasoning, here's how to make separate files
named the way you want:In your first article tag (which should be the only
one) include an id parameter and call it index. This will make
your tag look like this:article id="index"Do not modify the first
chapter
tag, as it's usually an introduction and you want that on the first
page. For each other section
tag, include the id parameter and name it. A name should include
only alphanumeric characters, and it should be short enough to
understand what it is.chapter id="tips"Pick section IDs intelligently
We all know that Cool URIs Don't
Change. This means your ids should not change either. Unless of
course the content for the id has changed substantially and the id name is no longer
relevant.
HTML file name generation using Jade
If you are using Jade to transform
your DocBook into HTML you must use the following parameter:
-V %use-id-as-filename%.
Headers and Footers
There is no easy way to add headers and
footers to your document. If you are using DocBook XSL and
doing your own document transformations you
may customize the XSL template to suit your needs. For more
information read .
Converting Documents to DocBook XMLDifferences between XML and SGML
There are a few changes between DocBook XML and SGML. Handling
these differences should be relatively easy for most small documents,
and many authors will not need to make any changes
to convert their documents other than the XML and DocBook
declarations at the start of their document.
For others, here is a list of what you should keep in mind
when converting your documents from SGML to XML.
Differences between XML and SGML elements
An XML element typically has three parts: the start tag,
the content (your words) and the end tag. Qualifiers
are added in the start tag and are known as
attributes. They will always have a name and a
quoted value.
<filename class="directory">/usr/local<filename>
The start tag contains one attribute (class)
with a value of directory. The end tag (also filename)
must not contain any attributes.
Element names (tags) and their attributes are
case-dependent--typically lowercase.
The following will not validate because the end tag
<PARA> is uppercase:
<para>This part will fail XML validation</PARA>
All attributes in the start tag must be
"quoted". This can
be either single (') or double (") quotes, but
not
reverse (`) or smart quotes.
The quote used to start a name="value"
pair must be the same quote used at the end of
the value. In other words: "this" would
validate, but 'that" would not.
Tags that have a start tag, but no end tag are
referred to as empty because they do
not contain (wrap around) anything. These tags must still be
closed with a trailing slash (/). For example:
xref must be written as
<xref linkend="software"/>. You may not
have any spaces between the / and >.
(Although you may have a space after the final
attribute: <xref linkend="foo" />.)
Processing instructions that get sent to the transformation
engine (DSSSL or XSLT) and must have a question mark at the
end of the tag. All processing instructions are removed from
the output stream. The XML version of this tag
would look like this:
<?dbhtml filename="foo"?>
If you're converting from SGML to XML, be sure
file names refer to .xml files instead of .sgml.
Some tools may get confused if a .sgml file contains XML.
Tag minimizations were used in SGML instead of
writing out the element name in the end tag.
Example: paraThis is foo. Tag minimizations are
not supported in XML and their use is
discouraged in DocBook.
Changing DTDs
The significant changes between version changes in the DTD
involve changes to the elements (tags). Elements may be:
deprecated (which means they will be removed in
future versions); removed; modified; or added.
Almost all authors will run into a changed or
deprecated tag when going from a lower version
of DocBook to a higher version.
DocBook: The Definitive Guide does
an excellent job of showing you how elements fit
together. For each element it tells you what an
element must contain (its content model) and what is
may be contained in (who its parents are). For
example: a note must contain a
para. If you try to write
<note>Content in a
note</note> your document will not validate.
Learning how elements are assembled will make it a
lot easier to understand any validation errors that
are thrown at you. If you get truly stuck you can
also email the LDP's docbook mailing list for extra
hints. Information on subscribing is available from
All tags that have been deprecated or changed for 4.x are listed
in DocBook: The definitive guide,
published by O'Reilly and Associates. This book is
also available on-line from http://www.docbook.org.
Differences between version 3.x and 4.x
Here are a few elements that are of particular
relevance to LDP authors:
<sgmltag>artheader</sgmltag>has been changed to
articleinfo.
Most other header elements have been renamed to info.
<sgmltag>graphic</sgmltag>has been deprecated and will be removed as of DocBook 5.x.
To prepare for this, start using
mediaobject. There is more
information about mediaobject
in .
<sgmltag>imagedata</sgmltag>file formats
must now be written in UPPERCASE letters. If you
use lowercase or mixed-case spellings
for your file formats, it will fail.
Valid:
<imagedata format="EPS" fileref="foo.eps">
Invalid:
<imagedata format="eps" fileref="foo.eps">
GlossaryAbiwordOpen Source word processor.
aspellSpell check program.
attributeAn attribute makes available extra information regarding the
element on which it appears. The attributes always appear as a
name-value pair on the initialization pointers
(i.e. the start tag). Example of an
attribute is id="identification", which gives the
attribute id the value
identification.Cascading Style Sheet
(CSS)Set of overlay rules that are read by your HTML browser, which uses these rules for doing the display, layout and formatting of the XML-generated HTML file(s). CSS allows for fast changes in look and feel without having to plunge in the HTML file(s).
CatalogHelper file for the display and transformation tools, which
maps public identifiers and URLs to the local file system.
Concurrent Versions System
(CVS)A common document management system used by the LDP.
DocBookAn SGML (and XML) application, describing a document format
that allows easy management of documentation.
docbook-utilsSoftware package easing XML conversions.
Document Type Definition
(DTD)A group of statements that define element names and their attributes
specifying the rules for combinations and sequences. It's the
DTD that defines which elements can or cannot
be inserted in the given context.
DSSSLDSSSL stands for Document Style Semantics and
Specification Language. It's an ISO standard
(ISO/IEC 10179:1996). The DSSSL standard is
internationally used as a language for documents style sheets pages for
SGML.element
The elements describe the content's structure in a document.
Most elements contain a start tag, content and a closing tag. For
example a paragraph element includes all of the following paraThis is the paragraph.para. Some elements are empty and do not
contain content and a closing tag. An example of this is a link to
an external document where the URL is printed to the page. This
element would include only the following ulink url="http://google.com.
EmacsPopular text editor, especially on UNIX systems or alikes.
entityAn entity is a name designated for some part of data so that it
can be referenced by a name. The data could be anything from
from simple characters to chapters to sets
of statements in a DTD.
Entity parameters can be generic, external, internal or
SGML data. An entity is similar to a variable
in a programming language, or a macro.
epcEditCross-platform XML editor.
external entityAn external entity points to an external document. External entities
are used to include texts on certain locations of a
SGML document. It could be used to include
sample screens, legal notes, and chapters for example.floatObjects such as side bars, pictures, tables, and charts are called floats when they don't have a fixed placement on the text. For
printed text, a chart can appear either at the top or at the
bottom of the page. It can also be placed on the next page if it is
too large.Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ)LDP hosts a number of documents that are a list in the form of
questions and answers. These documents are called FAQs. A FAQ is usually a single-page document.
generic entitiesAn entity referenced by a name, which starts with
& and ends with semicolon is a generic
entity. Most of the time this type of entity is used in the
document and not on the DTD. There are two types
of entities: external and internal. They can refer to special
characters or to text objects such as repeated sentences, names or
chapters.GNU Free Documentation License
(GFDL)Like the GNU Public License for free software, but with specifics for written text and documentation with software.
GNU Public License
(GPL)License type for software that guarantees that the software remains freely distributable, that the source code is available, that you can make changes to it and redistribute those changes if you want, on the condition that you keep on using the same license for your derived works.
GuideTLDP documents that are too long to be a HOWTO are usually stored
as guides. These are more like entire books that treat a particular
subject in-dept.
HOWTODocuments that discuss how to do something with a system or
application. Most documents hosted at TLDP are HOWTOs,
explaining how to install, configure or manage tens of applications
on a variety of systems. HOWTOs are typically 10-25 pages.
internal entityAn internal entity refers to part of the text and is often used
as a shortcut for frequently repeated text.ispellSpell check program.
JadeAn application which applies the rules defined in a DSSSL
style sheet to an SGML or XML document, transforming the document
into the desired output.
Markup, markup language
(ML)Code added to the content of a document, describing its structure.
MetadataText in your document that is not important for understanding the subject, but that should be there anyway, such as version information, co-authors, credits to people etc.
neditText editor oriented to programmers.
nsgmls, onsgmlsSGML document parser and validator program.
OpenOffice
(OOo)Open Source office suite, compatible with Microsoft Office.
parameter entityAn entity type often used in the DTD or a
document's internal subset. The entity's
name starts with a percent sign (%) and ends with a
semicolon.PSGMLEmacs major mode that customizes Emacs for editing SGML documents.
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(OASIS)OASIS is a non-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business standards.
OutlineDraft of your document that conceptualizes the subject and scope. Summary and To-Do list for the work to come.
Portable Document Format
(PDF)Standard document type supported on a wide range of operating systems.
processing instructionA processing instruction is a command passed to the document
formatting tool. It starts with <?. This document
uses processing instructions for naming files when it
is rendered into
HTML: ?dbhtml
filename="file.html"PostScript
(PS)Document format designed for printable documents. PS is the standard print format on UNIX(-alikes).
Reviewer, review processTLDP doesn't accept just anything. Once you submit a document, it will be checked for consistency, grammar, spelling and style by a reviewer, a volunteer assigned by the review coordinator.
SGMLStandard Generalized Markup
Language.
It is an international standard (ISO8879) that
specifies rules for the creation of electronic documents in markup
systems, regardless of the platform used.Subject and scopeObviously, the subject is what your documentation is about. The scope defines which areas of the subject you are going to discuss, and how much detail will be involved.
tagAn SGML element bounded by the marks
< and >. Tags are used
to mark the semantic or logical structure of a document. A sample
is the tag title to mark the beginning
of a title.TeXPopular UNIX text formatting and typesetting tool.
TransformationThe process of converting a document from its original DocBook XML form to another format, such as PDF, HTML or PostScript.
ValidationThe process of checking your XML code to ensure it complies
with the XML DTD you declared at the top of your document.
vi Improved
(vIm)Popular text editor on UNIX and alike systems.
WordPerfect
(WP)Popular word processor, runs on many systems.
XMLeXtensible Markup Language. A sub-product of SGML
created specifically for Internet use.xmllintCommand line XML parser and validator.
XMLmind XML Editor
(XXE)Free but not Open XML editor.
xmltoCommand line XML transformation program.
XSLXML Style
Language. XSL is to a XML document what a
DSSSL style is for a SGML
document. The XSL is written in
XML.Extensible Stylesheet Transformation
(XSLT)Framework for managing documents, consisting of the XSLT transformation language, the XPath expression language and XSL formatting objects.
GNU Free Documentation License0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or
other written document free in the sense of
freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and
redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either
commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License
preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for
their work, while not being considered responsible for
modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of copyleft, which means
that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in
the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License,
which is a copyleft license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
free software, because free software needs free documentation: a
free program should come with manuals providing the same
freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited
to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work,
regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a
printed book. We recommend this License principally for works
whose purpose is instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work that contains a
notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be
distributed under the terms of this License. The
Document, below, refers to any such manual or
work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed
as you.
A Modified Version of the Document means any work
containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied
verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another
language.
A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a
front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively
with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the
Document to the Document's overall subject (or to related
matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within
that overall subject. (For example, if the Document is in part a
textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any
mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical
connection with the subject or with related matters, or of
legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
regarding them.
The Invariant Sections are certain Secondary Sections whose titles
are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the
notice that says that the Document is released under this
License.
The Cover Texts are certain short passages of
text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts,
in the notice that says that the Document is released under this
License.
A Transparent copy of the Document means a machine-readable
copy, represented in a format whose specification is available
to the general public, whose contents can be viewed and edited
directly and straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for
images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for
drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is
suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic
translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text
formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format
whose markup has been designed to thwart or discourage
subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. A copy
that is not Transparent is called
Opaque.
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include
plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input
format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and
standard-conforming simple HTML designed for human
modification. Opaque formats include PostScript, PDF,
proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by
proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD
and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the
machine-generated HTML produced by some word processors for
output purposes only.
The Title Page means, for a printed book, the
title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to
hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in
the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title
page as such, Title Page means the text near the
most prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the
beginning of the body of the text.
2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that
you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this
License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or
control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or
distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for
copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you
must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated
above, and you may publicly display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose
the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these
Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also
clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these
copies. The front cover must present the full title with all
words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add
other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes
limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the
Document and satisfy these
conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
adjacent pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100,
you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with
each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a
publicly-accessible computer-network location containing a
complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added
material, which the general network-using public has access to
download anonymously at no charge using public-standard network
protocols. If you use the latter option, you must take
reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque
copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one
year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly
or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the
public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors
of the Document well before
redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance
to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of
sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release
the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus
licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version
to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do
these things in the Modified Version:
A
Use in the Title
Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct
from that of the Document, and from those of
previous versions (which should, if there were any, be
listed in the History section of the Document). You may
use the same title as a previous version if the original
publisher of that version gives permission.
B
List on the Title
Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities
responsible for authorship of the modifications in the
Modified Version,
together with at least five of the principal authors of
the Document (all of
its principal authors, if it has less than five).
C
State on the Title
Page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the
publisher.
D
Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E
Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F
Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a
license notice giving the public permission to use the
Modified Version under
the terms of this License, in the form shown in the
Addendum below.
G
Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and
required Cover
Texts given in the Document's license notice.
H
Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I
Preserve the section entitled History, and
its title, and add to it an item stating at least the
title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on
the Title Page. If
there is no section entitled History in the
Document, create one
stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the
Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item
describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous
sentence.
J
Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access
to a Transparent
copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations
given in the Document for previous versions it was based
on. These may be placed in the History
section. You may omit a network location for a work that
was published at least four years before the Document
itself, or if the original publisher of the version it
refers to gives permission.
K
In any section entitled Acknowledgements or
Dedications, preserve the section's title,
and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of
each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or
dedications given therein.
L
Preserve all the Invariant
Sections of the Document, unaltered in their
text and in their titles. Section numbers or the
equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
M
Delete any section entitled
Endorsements. Such a section may not be
included in the Modified
Version.
N
Do not retitle any existing section as
Endorsements or to conflict in title with
any Invariant
Section.
If the Modified Version
includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as
Secondary Sections and
contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your
option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To
do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the
Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be
distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section entitled Endorsements,
provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage
of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of
the list of Cover Texts
in the Modified Version.
Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text
may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one
entity. If the Document
already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously
added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are
acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may
replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous
publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License
give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version .
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document
with other documents released under this License, under the
terms defined in section 4
above for modified versions, provided that you include in the
combination all of the Invariant
Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified,
and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in
its license notice.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License,
and multiple identical Invariant
Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are
multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different
contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding
at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique
number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the
list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined
work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections entitled
History in the various original documents,
forming one section entitled History; likewise
combine any sections entitled Acknowledgements,
and any sections entitled Dedications. You must
delete all sections entitled Endorsements.6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents
released under this License, and replace the individual copies
of this License in the various documents with a single copy that
is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the
documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
dispbibute it individually under this License, provided you
insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and
follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim
copying of that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with
other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a
volume of a storage or distribution medium, does not as a whole
count as a Modified Version
of the Document, provided no compilation copyright is claimed
for the compilation. Such a compilation is called an
aggregate, and this License does not apply to the
other self-contained works thus compiled with the Document , on
account of their being thus compiled, if they are not themselves
derivative works of the Document. If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one
quarter of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may
be placed on covers that surround only the Document within the
aggregate. Otherwise they must appear on covers around the whole
aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with
translations requires special permission from their copyright
holders, but you may include translations of some or all
Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these
Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this
License provided that you also include the original English
version of this License. In case of a disagreement between the
translation and the original English version of this License,
the original English version will prevail.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly
provided for under this License. Any other attempt to copy,
modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software
Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU
Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions
will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ
in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
number. If the Document
specifies that a particular numbered version of this License
or any later version applies to it, you have the
option of following the terms and conditions either of that
specified version or of any later version that has been
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If
the Document does not specify a version number of this License,
you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by
the Free Software Foundation.
Addendum
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and
license notices just after the title page:
If you have no Invariant
Sections, write with no Invariant Sections
instead of saying which ones are invariant. If you have no
Front-Cover Texts, write
no Front-Cover Texts instead of
Front-Cover Texts being LIST; likewise for Back-Cover Texts.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code,
we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your
choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public
License, to permit their use in free software.