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   es0mhi@tilde.zone's status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 00:27:10 JST es0mhi

   • Sandra

   @alex @Sandra

   Yeah, I've often asked myself, if there is anything I couldn''t do with the combination of HTML + CSS? But for "academic writing" (and I never know if something I write for myself might partially end up in that context), things like citations, references, footnotes, bibliography, index, etc. are essential and all built into DocBook.

   But especially CSS has evolved to the point where it really has become an all-purpose weapon.

   • Embed this notice
     Sandra (sandra@idiomdrottning.org)'s status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 01:30:39 JST Sandra

     in reply to
     @es0mhi
     
     I can't get behind that. CSS is a can of spray paint and crayons when for evergreen docs, something stricter like texinfo or mdoc is perfect.
     
     https://idiomdrottning.org/the-dystopia-of-web-only-documentation
     
     Reading Ingo's text, it seems to me that it might be better using mdoc to convert to DocBook since going from strict&semantic to flexible&loose is usually easier than the other way around.
     
     @alex
   • Embed this notice
     es0mhi@tilde.zone's status on Thursday, 07-Dec-2023 01:30:39 JST es0mhi

     in reply to

     • Sandra

     @Sandra

     Of course, Ingo has a point by demanding "a light-weight source language" and "getting out of the way". (Hence the popularity of markdown.)

     I fear we would have to go into a lot of detail about my workflow - and in a way, that's what it comes down to: use cases, habits, requirements are all different. Going from mdoc to DocBook wouldn't work in my case because 70 macros is just too limited. But the way I write is similar to what @alex describes: I start jotting down something in AsciiDoc, have it converted to DocBook, and add elements as my ideas evolve.

     mdoc, DocBook, etc. all start by separating semantics from presentation, and that's a good thing. But often the visual presentation helps to make a dense text jungle penetrable. And that's where CSS comes in handy. Not as something to make text appealing ("spray paint and crayons"), but for structuring multilayered text.

     Does that make sense?