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Re: [StrongED] Re: StrongED Instructions

On 2017-12-18 15:05, Richard Torrens (lists) wrote:

In article <357e666212ccfa9c8f3c78e837ad060e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
   Jeremy Nicoll - ml sed <jn.ml.sed45@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It's not that it's easier; it's more versatile.
Perhaps you should first answer Peter Young's very relevant question. If 
you didn't read it, it was

And if I do make an XML file, what would I do with it in RISC OS?


Peter, or any other contributor, would probably do nothing specific
with it, other than send it to whoever was assembling the whole thing.

Before that though, someone, or maybe a group of people would need to
decide what the 'shape' of the overall document (or documents should
be).  I don't mean what they'd look like visually, but things like

 - what indexes are likely to be desired

 - do you want reference material as well as tutorial material

 - do you want any of the snippets of info to be in both document
   'streams'

 - what sorts of things might need to be tagged, eg shortcuts,
   keystrokes that someone trying something might actually type
   themselves, lines of code (eg a few lines from a modefile),
   corresponding effects illustrated by screenshots, screenshots
   that don't correspond to something just described, concepts,
   (which might relate to a glossary held somewhere)

Even if you don't go down the XML route, you do need a solid agreed
idea of the structure of what you're setting out to produce.  You
also need to contemplate different audiences: someone who is a
professional programmer already used to heavily customisable text
editors needs far less explained than a more naive user who's only
just moved on from !Edit or Notepad.

Once the skeletal structure of the information is agreed, someone
would need to write a DTD - a formal description of the agreed
syntax and structure of such a document, or portion of such a
document.

Only then can Peter, or anyone else, create an XML document that
actually meets those agreed standards.  Such a document cannot be
automatically processed (eg by an XSLT transform) into some output
format unless there is a DTD to assist the XSLT process when it
parses the XML files.


I don't know if the standalone XSLT processor runs on RO.  As it
should just read and produce plain text files (albeit ones that
might contain PostScript, or PDF or HTML or plain text) I'd be
surprised if none of the programming community have ported it.
If not, someone might have to run that part on linux or Windows.

Your biggest problems, apart from agreeing to do it that way, will
be writing the DTD, and XSLT transform(er) specifications.  It'll
be MUCH easier if someone with experience doing this is involved.
(I am not that person, and with poor health and a house to clear
and an estate to get settled, not about to volunteer.)

--
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own

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