Friday, March 23 2001

Tim Waugh : The Selfdocbook

"is a self-documenting introduction to DocBook DocBook book. It includes its own DocBook SGML source in the appendix, and so can be used to learn DocBook by example. ...if you see something that you want to know how to do, you can simply flip to Appendix A to find out how it is done." On the subject of things wonkish, there is no dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day today because the word "small beer" is actually a phrase. Since I didn't think I would need to add hooks for this kind of error checking (it will be fun!) in the code that generates the dict-ified rss feed, the word of the day will have to be wonk. Wonk wonk wonk.

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Teledynamics : HTML2DB...the Holy Grail of DocBook Converters?

"Don't get too excited: Asking a robot to convert HTML to DocBook is like asking a machine to take a truckload of bricks and build you a house. Still, a robot can get you part of the way there; this package contains a shell script and a DSL file which take a first stab at converting well-formed HTML into quasi-DocBook-like markup. It's not the philosopher's stone, it can't possibly pass the NSGMLS test, but it might save you some work translating old HTML docs to DocBook." Or, for kicks, try playing this telephone game five times and see what comes out at the other end...

doc -> html -> pod -> docbook -> html -> doc

...<wonk size = "tiny" type = "feeble" />

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I had to walk through the tunnel

that separates Atwater metro and Westmount Square this afternoon. As I came around the corner into the tunnel, I could hear a busker playing guitar by the mirrors that mark the symbolic dividing line between (the city soon to be formerly known as) Westmount and Montreal. It turns out he was just playing Y-A Rolling Stones hit, but for a few, terrifying moments I could swear he was playing Dirk Diggler's Feel My Heat.

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