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From: Cameron Shorter <cameron@shorter.net>
To: forrest-dev@xml.apache.org
Subject: Generguide 0.2 - Generic Docbook Guide Builder and Forrest look alike
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 07:59:59 +1100
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Hi,
After helping put together a release of generguide, I came across forrest and 
was wondering whether the generguide functionality could/should be 
incorporated into the forrest project.

There seem to be a lot of similarities - both building docs from source and 
configuration files.
 
I'd be interested to hear your throughts.

On Tuesday 04 Nov 2003 6:52 am, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> We are excited to announce that we have our first public release of
> http://generguide.sourceforge.net .
>
> What is generguide?
> ===============
> Generguide allows you to selectively merge modular docbook documentation
> from around the web based.  The Generguide Configuration file is used
> over-ride Modular Document <xinclude> references and force module files to
> be imported from another location, or not be imported at all.
>
> See the following URL for a dynamic demonstration:
> http://www.gisontheweb.com:8080/~cameron/cgi-bin/processconfig.pl
>
> Generguide is particularly useful for tailoring generic business processes.
>  80% of business processes are common across the industry.  With
> generguide, common documentation can be edited collectively and referenced
> over the web. This means your business need only focus on the 20% of
> documentation specific to your company.
>
> We use generguide to tailor a Generic Software Developer's Guide:
> http://generguide.sourceforge.net/developersguide/developersguide.html
>
> Generguide builds upon Docbook XML, xinclude, XSLT, and related
> technologies.
>
> Status of version 0.2
> ===============
> Generguide 0.2 is fully functional.  You can see it working at:
> http://www.gisontheweb.com:8080/~cameron/cgi-bin/processconfig.pl
> We still consider it alpha quality and I suggest you wait until version 0.3
> before committing your business to it.
> They are a few design issues which we would like help with and which may
> change the structure of our configuration files and the way we use docbook.
>
> Goals for version 0.2
> ================
> * Find and network with people interested in similar concepts.
> * Get future users to join our email lists and help refine our use cases.
> * Find Docbook and XSL Gurus who will review our design and advice us on
> some design issues.
>
> Are you a docbook or XSL guru?
> ========================
> We want design advice on the following issues:
> 1. How should we implement variables within our documentation?  Currently
> we use ENTITIES like &project_name; however entity files are not XML and
> hence hard to process.  We are considering extending the Docbook schema to
> add a <variable> tag.
>
> 2. Generguide uses modular docbook, which means a docbook file can include
> another docbook node using <xinclude href="another_section.xml">.  However,
> we have run into problems when linking from one module to another because
> it causes invalid xml.  Ie, when the main doc contains <link
> linkend="an_id_from_another_section">.  What should we do to avoid getting
> invalid XML?
>
> Looking for a host
> ==============
> We are looking for somewhere to host our generguide demonstration site,
> currently living at:
> http://www.gisontheweb.com:8080/~cameron/cgi-bin/processconfig.pl
>
> Contact us
> ========
> Please let us know what you think about generguide.  We haven't talked with
> many people about generguide yet and would like to know if we are onto a
> good idea or not.
> Join one of our email lists: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=83647
> Or email me direct: cameron AT shorter.net
>
> Hope to be talking with you soon.

-- 
Cameron Shorter              http://cameron.shorter.net
Open Source Developer        http://generguide.sourceforge.net
                             http://mapbuilder.sourceforge.net
                             http://geotools.org
Senior Software Engineer     http://www.adi-limited.com