DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: which DocBook in DOCTYPE?

[Karl Eichwalder <keichwa at gmx dot net>]

Bob Stayton <bobs@sco.com> writes:

> And the solution is?

To use a public identifier.

> Well, each released version may be stable, but this
> is the sequence of released (non-draft) versions of Docbook 4:
> 
> 18 May 2000 Released Docbook 4.0
> 19 Jun 2000 Released Docbook 4.1
> 12 Aug 2000 Released Docbook 4.1.1
> 27 Aug 2000 Released Docbook 4.1.2

Just use 4.1.2.  Newer release of the 4.x series are fixing bugs; they
are backwards compatible to 4.0.

> That means maintaining all five DTDs and making sure my
> tools work with all five.

Sorry, this isn't needed.  For the 3.x series use 3.1 and for 4.x use
4.1.2 or later.  Of course, you've to maintain an environment for 3.x
and for 4.x since these DTDs aren't compatible (by definition).  Using
Norman's style sheets this isn't a problem.

> How so?  I adapt my active files to each new DTD release
> when I update my tools.

Okay, now you're starting to talk about "active" files; nevertheless it
might be necessary to process documents using previous DTDs (third
parties might send "legacy" files to you or because of copyright issues
it might not be allowed to change a document).

I'm inclined to believe it isn't a good idea to change "old"
("inactive"/"frozen") documents to please the SGML processing system.
Such an approach contradicts the SGML philosophy -- even if it works for
you.

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