Re: DOCBOOK: chaining DSSSL stylesheets

[Steffen Maier <Steffen dot Maier at studserv dot uni-stuttgart dot de>]

On Wed, 7 Aug 2002, Ed Halley wrote:
> For example, I use Red Hat Linux 7.3, and there are stock style sheets
> already included at the following locations.  One for HTML, and one for
> other print-oriented layouts.
>
>   /usr/share/sgml/docbook/dsssl-stylesheets-1.76/html/docbook.dsl
>   /usr/share/sgml/docbook/dsssl-stylesheets-1.76/print/docbook.dsl
>
> Also included in the Red Hat's docbook-utils package, is a stock
> customization layer which extends the basic stylesheets in a number of
> generically useful ways... a sort of "best practices" collection from
> what I've seen on discussions on the web.  With this layer, I should be
> able to do <emphasis role="strong">bold</emphasis>, and assert new
> values for %title-font-family% and other key parameters.
>
>   /usr/share/sgml/docbook/utils-0.6.9/docbook-utils.dsl
>
> Now, if I do not provide a custom stylesheet to the command line, it
> uses the docbook-utils.dsl customization layer by default.  However, if
> I specify my own local "driver" file as specified in the example on the
> docbook site, it goes directly to the original stock, and does not use
> the intermediary docbook-utils layer.
>
> How would I define a local customization layer that chains onto the
> docbook-utils file?  I can't figure out what to use in my layer's
> <external-specification> tag values, or if I need to manipulate the
> catalogs, or what.

I'm not familiar with Red Hat's catalog machinery but the best solution
would be to replace the PUBLIC identifier in your local customization
layer which references Norm's stylesheet by one referencing Red Hat's
customization layer. This of course works only if there is a resolution
entry for the latter one in the catalog files. To get a peek if such a
chaining works independent of catalog issues you could try something like
the following in your local customization layer:

<!DOCTYPE style-sheet PUBLIC "-//James Clark//DTD DSSSL Style Sheet//EN" [
<!ENTITY dbstyle SYSTEM
"/usr/share/sgml/docbook/utils-0.6.9/docbook-utils.dsl" CDATA DSSSL>
]>

<style-sheet>
<style-specification use="docbook">
<style-specification-body>

;; your changes go here...

</style-specification-body>
</style-specification>
<external-specification id="docbook" document="dbstyle">
</style-sheet>

Note the modified ENTITY declaration in opposite to the one you might have
been using according to
http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ch04.html#dsssl.driver.

HTH,
Steffen.

-- 
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