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* Off-topic: Plain text, XML or LaTex?
@ 2003-06-23 12:21 Mac
  2003-06-23 13:49 ` Phillip Lord
                   ` (6 more replies)
  0 siblings, 7 replies; 13+ messages in thread
From: Mac @ 2003-06-23 12:21 UTC (permalink / raw)



I apologize for this off-topic posting. But I really like to know how
you fellow Emacsien feal about his.

I like plain text, and have for a long time used outline-mode to write
both my own private notes as well as draft documents. I have also for
a long time been thinking about moving to LaTex so that I also can
produce my final documents in Emacs as well.

Now I have an opportunity to move to XML instead. So I would
appreciate your thoughts about this.

How can I get up-to speed with writing XML inside Emacs? Is it worth
it, or should I stick with plain-ol-text? Any pointers to tutorials,
books etc is appreciated.

Perhaps you have a completely different setup that you are willing to
share with me?

/mac

One reason for liking plain text is it's portability (but so are eg
.pdf these days). Another is version control, I'm a heavy user of cvs
(pcl-cvs is *great*).

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 13+ messages in thread
[parent not found: <E19URxP-0007tH-2A@monty-python.gnu.org>]
* RE: Off-topic: Plain text, XML or LaTex?
@ 2003-06-24  4:37 Dmitri.Minaev
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 13+ messages in thread
From: Dmitri.Minaev @ 2003-06-24  4:37 UTC (permalink / raw)


Hello, Mac,

I'd say that it all depends on whether you can afford spending some time
tuning the XML tools to your needs. If yes, XML may be usable. Emacs is good
in editing XML (just as good as it is in editing anything else :) , there
are some XSL processors (like xsltproc) and XSL:FO formatters (PassiveTeX or
Apache FOP) of acceptable quality.

Anyway, you'll have either to choose some established standard (TEI or
DocBook) or to write your own XSL transformation from your own DTD to
XSL:FO, which means more time spent on tweaking the xsl files and writing
shell scripts.

The good side of XML is, of course, in XSL. The bad one is that it's still
far from being a ripe standard and some time will pass before, e.g.,
FO-formatters will fully comply with the current standard of XSL:FO.

See "XML, a new start for the Web"
(http://tex.loria.fr/xml-etc/goossens-xml2000.pdf) by M.Goossens and
"PassiveTeX: from XML to PDF"
(http://home.cern.ch/goossens/goossensrahtz.ps.gz) by M.Goossens and
S.Rahtz.

PS: Me, I prefer plain text on paper ;) I don't trust computers, you can
never know with 'em...

--
With best regards,
Dmitri Minaev


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mac [mailto:oonplnhd02@sneakemail.com]
> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 4:22 PM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Off-topic: Plain text, XML or LaTex?
> 
> 
> 
> I apologize for this off-topic posting. But I really like to know how
> you fellow Emacsien feal about his.
> 
> I like plain text, and have for a long time used outline-mode to write
> both my own private notes as well as draft documents. I have also for
> a long time been thinking about moving to LaTex so that I also can
> produce my final documents in Emacs as well.
> 
> Now I have an opportunity to move to XML instead. So I would
> appreciate your thoughts about this.
> 
> How can I get up-to speed with writing XML inside Emacs? Is it worth
> it, or should I stick with plain-ol-text? Any pointers to tutorials,
> books etc is appreciated.
> 
> Perhaps you have a completely different setup that you are willing to
> share with me?
> 
> /mac
> 
> One reason for liking plain text is it's portability (but so are eg
> .pdf these days). Another is version control, I'm a heavy user of cvs
> (pcl-cvs is *great*).
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
> 

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 13+ messages in thread
[parent not found: <mailman.8464.1056380372.21513.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>]

end of thread, other threads:[~2003-06-25 19:30 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 13+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2003-06-23 12:21 Off-topic: Plain text, XML or LaTex? Mac
2003-06-23 13:49 ` Phillip Lord
2003-06-25  9:24   ` Mac
2003-06-25 19:30     ` Robert Mecklenburg
2003-06-23 16:39 ` Martin Stemplinger
2003-06-23 17:27 ` Ted Zlatanov
2003-06-23 19:23 ` Jeffery B. Rancier
2003-06-23 21:03 ` Roodwriter
2003-06-24  7:11 ` Kai Großjohann
     [not found] ` <mailman.8506.1056397474.21513.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2003-06-25  3:37   ` Galen Boyer
     [not found] <E19URxP-0007tH-2A@monty-python.gnu.org>
2003-06-23 14:57 ` Urban Gabor
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2003-06-24  4:37 Dmitri.Minaev
     [not found] <mailman.8464.1056380372.21513.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2003-06-25  3:40 ` Galen Boyer

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