Convert spec from SGML to XML

[Jeff Johnson]

[reply] [-] Description Ron Hale-Evans 2008-08-18 17:10:41 UTC
It's generally been considered desirable to convert the specification
documentation files from SGML to XML, although so far it hasn't been a high
priority, mainly because the process would be substantial and time-consuming.

Such a conversion process would have several steps:

1. Research what is entailed by the conversion -- which tags and SGML entities
would have to be converted to their SGML equivalents, and what this would mean;
which extra software would be required, both for the conversion and to process
the XML files when building the docs; what impact the conversion would have on
the LSB infrastructure, such as the database; and so on.

2. Write custom scripts to perform the conversion, possibly invoking external
tools.

3. Perform some conversion dry runs.

4. When the tools perform at a satisfactory level, perform the conversion.

5. Hand-tweak the new XML files as necessary so that the docs will build.

6. Push the (probably massive) changes.

This bug is intended to kick-start the conversion process after 4.0.
[reply] [-] Comment 1