Subject: Re: Using AbiWord as WYISYG editor for SGML? (DocBook or LinuxDoc)
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2000 - 14:28:30 CDT
sam th wrote:
Sam,
Thanks for your response!
I understand your point that SGML does not define how it looks. Given
that, I would then ask, why can't I have something that is approximately
WYSIWYG. In other words, SGML (I think) can say this is a section
heading, this is a footnote, this is plain text, this is a top level
section, this is a lower level section, this is a table, etc. Now,
display those things in a generic way (a top level section in 16 pt.
bold, all caps, underlined, the next level down, 14 pt. bold, mixed
case, etc.)
(The next step would be to allow stylesheets that defined how each level
would be formatted.)
Am I really missing something?
Thanks!
Randy Kramer
PS: I am the same Randy Kramer that was hoping to implement collapsible
outlining for AbiWord. Just for the record, my 5 year "schedule"
(tongue firmly in cheek) has not expired. ;-)
>
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> On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Randy Kramer wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've done a little experimentation trying to use AbiWord to edit SGML in
> > a WYSISYG fashion. (For example, I've taken an sgml file, pasted on
> > the AbiWord headers from a valid AbiWord file, added the </section> and
> > <abiword> tags at the end of the document. Basically I get messages to
> > the effect that it is a bogus file. I've also saved the files as html
> > and as sgml, but if I then reopen them in Abiword, they are not WYISWYG,
> > in other words, the sgml or html tags are displayed and formatting is
> > not based on those tags.)
> >
>
> For HTML, AbiWord currently cannot import HTML, so you are just seeing the
> raw text.
>
> As far as SGML, AbiWord cannot deal with SGML of arbitrary varieties in an
> interesting way (eg, better than Emacs). This will not change. SGML
> editing is really complicated, and really hard to write. It also never
> works very well. And by definition, it cannot be WYSIWYG (since the SGML
> is arbitrary).
>
> > Has anyone else tried this? Been more successful?
> >
> > Does anyone know of a real WYSIWYG editor for SGML? (or WYSIWYM as the
> > LyX people might say)
>
> There is no such thing. Most varieties of SGML do not define how they
> 'look'. How would you WYSIWIG edit an XSLT file?
>
> sam th
> sam@uchicago.edu
> http://www.abisource.com/~sam/
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