[I'm sending this to exim-dev and exim-users, to get to a wider
audience. I've set the Reply-to: to exim-dev.]
After several man-weeks of work, I have managed to get the Exim documentation
into a new form in which the various output formats are created from a DocBook
XML file. This file is created from an AsciiDoc input file. The whole
process is pretty convoluted. I am going to write a separate document
about the horrors of XML processing, describing how I created the
output, and what the problems are.
Meanwhile, I would like as many people as possible to take a look at the
results, and tell me whether they think they are good enough to use. My own
view is that the presentation is not good in a number of ways, but despite
this, I think we probably have to make this change and hope that XML processors
get better.
I have put the "new format" 4.50 documents onto a website for people to look
at. These are the files:
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/filter.html
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/filter.info
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/filter.pdf
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/filter.ps.bz2
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/filter.txt.bz2
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/spec.html.tar.bz2
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/spec.info.tar.bz2
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/spec.pdf
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/spec.ps.bz2
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~ph10/eximdoc/spec.txt.bz2
The spec.html.tar.bz2 file unpacks into a directory of files; the
spec.info.tar.bz2 file unpacks into about half a dozen info files.
I'd be grateful if people would look at these and tell me what you think. Also,
please look out for any bugs, mis-formats, or other problems. Those of you who
are keen on "info" files, please check those out.
To spread the load, perhaps people could post what they will do - for example:
"I will read chapters 20-30 of the PDF version", so that we get wider coverage
and not too much duplication.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
Get the Exim 4 book: http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-book
