Re: SGML Books (But where's the DSSSL?)

[Mark Craig <mcraig -at- WINCAPSOFTWARE -dot- COM>]

Thanks to Tim Altom & Geoff Hart for responding so quickly. I should have
mentioned: having no budget and wanting to go all the way to multiple
formats from the SGML documents.



A. The Que book (Using SGML Special Edition by Colby and Jackson) is out of
print, according to amazon (http://www.amazon.com).  Macmillan (
http://www.mcp.com) confirms that the book is out of print.

Looking at the book's table of contents at amazon, I cannot help feeling
that this book will help me get documents to SGML, and maybe to HTML, but
what about paper and .hlp and other formats? I don't see DSSSL in there.



B. The search for Chet Ensign's SGML-related books at amazon turned up only
the two books below, which look like they're for managers deciding how to
spend money rather than tech writers with no budget who want to impose a
uniform but flexible logical structure on documentation and quit
reformatting documents by hand. What if you have no budget, but still think
SGML is the solution? (Should you consider yourself nuts?)

("Your Book Search Results
for: the title words include "SGML", and the author(s) are like "Ensign,
Chet"

...Sgml : The Billion Dollar Secret
...Sgml Buyer's Guide : A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and
Choosing the Right Sgml and Xml Products and Services")



I have read Bob DuCharme's book, SGML CD; Eric Van Herwijnen's Practical
Sgml; most of Developing SGML DTDs : From Text to Model to Markup by Eve
Maler & Jeanne El Andaloussi; and some of what is free on the net, like the
Gentle Introduction from TEI. I've tried the DSSSL tutorials by Daniel M.
Germán & Paul Prescod, but it's slow going.

Bob DuCharme came close to putting everything in one book, but I need more
hand-holding. For example, I want to create a good DSSSL file for
processing information mapped documents - there are 2 example dtd's at
http://www.imap.dk - which require a solid understanding of DSSSL tables.
An understanding that I have not been able to acquire simply by doing the
tutorials and trying to decipher the specs (in
ftp://ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/WG8/DSSSL/).

Is there a guru out there who has information mapped the path to total
understanding of SGML + DSSSL? Can the knowledge be acquired on a
shoestring budget?

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000