[CMake] [PATCH] add docbook support for cmake documentation

[Brandon Van Every]

On Feb 17, 2008 2:13 PM, Alexander Neundorf <a.neundorf-work at gmx.net> wrote:
>
> attached you can find a patch against current cmake cvs which adds support for
> generating the documentation as docbook file.

Interesting.  I started going up a learning curve recently about
technical documentation formats, thinking about what would allow for
incremental documentation of CMake in the real world.  I found a nice
chart of different formats available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_document_markup_languages
The main competition to docbook seems to be Darwin Information Typing
Architecture (DITA).  They're the new kid on the block, which probably
has advantages and disadvantages.  They're interested in modular reuse
of documenation, but I'm not sure yet if that translates to easier
incremental development for open source communities.  There seems to
be a whole industry of massaging industrial documents, i.e. people
make money at this.  Indeed there's some moaning from the docbook side
about DITA consultants selling new bells and whistles and whatnot.
:-)  Anyways, the consultant talk does make me realize that there are
cultural problems with getting people to write docs, even when people
are paid to write docs (unlike here).  Here's a semi-illuminating
article on docbook vs. DITA.
http://norman.walsh.name/2006/03/24/dita2006  If nothing else you
should read it just to understand what docbook thinks it's on about.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every