[Tfug] Desktop Publishing Software

[Ronald Sutherland]

I keep trying to figure out better ways to do my documentation and web pages
(both at home and work).  About seven years back I was trying to put Word
files into CVS to keep track of them (test procedures and setups for a
number of embedded things). At the time the embedded products used a lot of
Linux based tools so that was how I got exposed (along the lines of
radiation burns). I wanted the test operator to have access to the
documentation, but they were on Linux. My answerer was to make web pages
from the existing Word documentation. After some heroic manual attempts to
keep the web files synchronized with the Word stuff in CVS, I started to
explore automation. For example using Scheduled Task ( a.k.a. Cron Jobs on
*nix) to "cvs update", and then convert word into html. I got some stuff to
work on Windows but my interest in Linux was pulling me in that direction.
After I had scripts that transformed the Word files into HTML all I needed
was a Word file checked into CVS, and the cron job would automatically run
and update the documentation on a Linux computer used to configure and test
embedded products (hmm... I had forgot that I have used Linux in production
but the politics were different).  I also made an iso image from time to
time so a blob could be mounted in computers used off sight.

That job ran about two years (2001-2003), and now the needs of the
documentation that I do have changed, but I still play with those old ideas.
My home web pages and projects are not in Word, because a Word file is not
textual, I can't tell what changed using the version management tools. My
own projects have mostly been APT documents in CVS.

http://www.xmlmind.com/aptconvert.html

I need to have a look at maven, it showed up when I googled APT...

http://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-apt-format.html

Basically it allows me to clearly see whats been changing in my
documentation with the CVS difference tools.

However I have found that simply using HTML with <pre> tags around the text
of interest works in CVS for what I want to track, and then I can glitz up
other parts of the document as long as the tools don't mess with the stuff
inside the <pre> tag. I'll note that Word 2003 changes even the stuff in a
<pre> tag, however so far Open Office writer does not. (CVS @ home, SVN @
work)

I realize this is somewhat OT, but I'm killing time...