nit to pick: docbook

[Dag Wieers]

On Thu, 4 May 2006, Vincent Danen wrote:

> I have a nit... and I need to pick it.
> 
> Why oh why are manpages being provided in sgml format which requires me
> to not only use but actually provide MB's of docbook and other sgml
> related junk that the only other package I've seen require is the linux
> kernel, and then only if you actually want the docs.
> 
> manpages shouldn't *have* to be compiled like that.  I think it's
> impolite.  =)
> 
> Could I possibly convince you to provide the "compiled" manpages in the
> tarball so I don't *have* to build and provide docbook (or,
> alternatively, build them on another system that has docbook and add the
> manpages in their own tarball as another source for my rpm)?
> 
> I don't know what other formats those manpages and docs are supposed to
> be provided in (html, maybe?) but I think the manpages should be
> "unencumbered" to those of us with slim systems.
> 
> My $0.02CAD.  Sorry to start making demands already... =)

I'm very fond of asciidoc, maybe that's an acceptable alternative ?

In essence it's a strict human-readable ascii format (that is acceptable 
just as plain text) but can be converted nevertheless to manpages, 
html-pages or PDF.

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]