vsbabu.org

Docbook for programmers

I like DocBook for its features. I hate it for its cumbersome nature. I think I’ve found out two things that will make my life easier:

1. StructuredText in Python.
2. eDE, an environment for managing DocBook projects in Windows.

Look at the simple code to convert a Structured Text document to DocBook:

"""
Simple utility to convert STX to docBook
"""
import sys
import StructuredText
raw=open("STNG.txt").read()
st=StructuredText.Basic(raw)
doc=StructuredText.Document(st)
#html=StructuredText.HTML(doc)
docbook = StructuredText.DocBookArticle(doc)
print docbook

All I need is to see if eDE is indeed good. It must be, though it is in Java. I’ll post my findings later - it is a 19MB download.

Even if eDE is too heavy for my needs, I think I can quickly turn around Leo Outliner to maintain chunks of StructuredText, from which I can produce a complex DocBook article, chapter or book.

My Goals and Requirements:

1. Edit in VI.
2. Structure in outlines.
3. Magically generate multiple formats.