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Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] RE: HTML -> DocBook Conversion?
Steve Whitlatch <swhitlat@getnet.net> writes: > Hello Roger, > > Is the FrameMaker document already in structured form in > FrameMaker? If not, then this information may not help. I > have webbed a detailed rerecord of my experience with > DocBook+FrameMaker at: > > http://www.getnet.net/‾swhitlat > > Follow the DocBook link on the left. Do you have a summary written up about any problems or limitations you ran into getting valid DocBook output from Frame 7? A couple years back Bob Stayton wrote up a list of some problems he found, and I did the same. Summary is at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xml-doc/message/3257 Did you run into those same problems? If so, how did you work around them? Post-processing, maybe? Or some custom proramming. [...] > For a single document, I would probably do the work > manually. However, there could be a solution going to MIF > and then sending the MIF file through some type of > tag-mapping process via Perl or another text manipulation > tool. To learn how to do that would probably take some > people (me) much, much longer than the manual process. > > So, for a single document, it's just work. For hundreds or > thousands of documents, a MIF expert who knows the text > conversion tools would be the solution. Some consultants who > fit that category often participate on the various > FrameMaker mailing lists. One thing about working with MIF is, there is no free open-source MIF parser for Frame 5 (or 6 or 7). There was one once that could handle Frame 4 files, I think. So if you were really to build your own system for working with MIF in Perl or whatever, you'd first need to create a MIF parser. If (and this is a big If, I know) you don't need to preserve the content of your Frame markers (index markers, hypertext links, etc.) on conversion to DocBook, I think going from Frame's "plain" XML output through a custom XSLT stylesheet to generate DocBook works pretty well. And one big advantage of it is you don't need to learn any proprietary application-specific language/system (e.g., Frame 7's stuff or WebWorks Publisher's macro language). All you need to learn is some basic XSLT, and of course learning that will end up being useful for a lot more than just converting Frame content. (And Steve, I don't mean you personally, because I know you already know XSLT -- I'm just using "you" in the general sense). --Mike
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