Re: [Vim-latex-devel] Re: tex-refs project and xml to vim-help conversion

[Benji F. <be...@me...>]

Peter Karp wrote:
> Hi Benji and Srinath,
> 
> I'll answer your two e-mails in one:

      Thanks.

>>But I am quite unclear about how exactly they process the xml source to
>>generate the various formats. It looks like they would use the docbook
>>xsl stylesheets available at
>>
>>http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/xsl/
> 
> I'm not sure about that. Michael can answer that.

      I hope he can find time to answer.

>>Since vim-help is plain text, it will be in general hard to create
>>stylesheets for it, because we will have to do all the rendering
>>ourselves. 
> 
> I hope that it won't be that hard, because the stylesheet for the plain
> ascii text output could be used as a starting point.

      That sounds promising.

>>Therefore, it is of importance to know how many elements of
>>the docbook DTD definition the tex-refs project uses. Each new element
>>used will be more work.
> 
> As far as I've understand the number of elements won't add too much work,
> because many can be handled the same way to create a simple ascii output.
> 
> I'm more worried if it's hard to create a stylesheet which creates an
> output as half as nice as the very good (in terms of ease of reading)
> formatted Vim help files. :-)
[snip]

> If you don't mind it would be great to subscribe to the tex-refs mailing
> list, so it's easier to reach everyone "at once". [snip]

      I just subscribed.

> I guess Michael is right and it's easier to create an XSLT transformation
> instead of writing a Vim macro (awk or whatever script) to do all the
> formatting, but maybe I'm wrong -- especially considering that you both
> have experience to write vim macros, but not with XSLT.

      I am willing to learn a new tool if it seems like the right one 
for the job.

> What do you think about those two options? Which way do you think is the
> best way to go? Are there others who are interested in an XML to Vim help
> converter (besides tex-refs)? As XML is gaining more ground each day it
> might be useful in the future for others too?

      We are thinking of writing the documentation for LaTeX Suite in 
XML format, so that we can get LaTeX, HTML, and Vim-help output.  If it 
works out, we can post a link on http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/ in case 
others find it useful.

					--Benji