Re:New Project Proposal (or not..)

[Stephen Rust <steve tp org>]

On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, Daniel M. German wrote:

> Stephen,
> 
> SGML is a huge language. It might be better if you deal with XML
> instead of SGML. SGML is inherently difficult to parse and to support
> in its totality. XML is simple to parse, its DTDs are slim. 

I guess my main goal of the project was to have something similar to a
'netscape composer' type of feel, where you throw some text on a screen,
format it around the page like you want, with colors, borders, tables,
type of things, and then be able to export it to a lot of different
formats like the sgmltools provide capability of.  I agree, supporting the
whole SGML language would be quite a task.  And I've read that XML is sort
of like a re-birth of SGML, with possibility for some widespread
acceptance, so maybe that is the way to go.  

At least to start with I don't want to create a hugely complicated
process.  But the possibility to create some simple formatted text is
highly appealing, with the help of the GUI.

> You have to decide early whether you want to have typesetting in the
> elements of the document or not. Or maybe, the ideal would be to have
> two separate entry windows (or modes): plain SGML/XML and WYSIWYG
> entry in which a style is dynamically applied to the text being
> inserted. The latter can be implemented with XSL, since the
> typesetting could be a "one pass" process.

I like the idea of being able to show the code, and the result at the same
time.  I do have more reading to do regarding typesetting, stylesheets,
etc. however.  But for example in 'MS Access' where you have a window with
your bare SQL code, and then another window with your choices and layout
which created the SQL code, sounds like an interesting way to show it.

>  Stephen> - How large a project would this be?
> 
> It depends on what your goals are. If you are shooting for SGML (as
> defined in the stardard) it might take quite a loooong time.

Definitely a subset of something (sgml or xml) to start.  At least in the
short run, and the motivation for the project, I'm not looking for full
implementation, just the ability to create some simple documents quickly.

Thanks for the feedback,
Steve