Re: [docbook-apps] is docbook the right tool for the job?

[Bob Stayton <bobs at sco dot com>]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 01:46:59PM +1000, Jason Lewis wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My previous post has got me thinking that prehaps docbook isn't quite the best 
> tool for the job I want to acheive.
> 
> I want to have a printed catalogue for my business, of all the products we 
> sell. I have a database that has all the information in it and I was hoping to 
> generate the catalogue from my database into a docbook format using perl, and 
> then generate a PDF from it.
> 
> But I'm starting to think that maybe docbook isn't quite right for the job and 
> prehaps I should look at LaTeX instead? or as some other people have 
> suggested, should I still use docbook but then generate the pdf using db2latex?

There are two aspects about whether DocBook is appropriate.
The first is whether you can express your content using
DocBook tags.  DocBook is not very suitable for highly
designed layout-driven pages since it is not a layout
program.  Of course, neither is HTML, and look at how
well people do with HTML layout tables.

The other aspect is whether the tools will produce the
quality of output your need.  Keep in mind that 
there are other FO processors that do a better job
than the free processors PassiveTeX and FOP.
A commercial product such as XEP handles tables better.

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
The SCO Group                               fax:   (831) 429-1887
                                            email: bobs@sco.com

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