documentation tool for XSLT which generates offline text formats

[Christian]

Hi,

are there any documentation tools (like doxygen) for XSLT which could
generate ``offline''-documentation formats like TXT, LaTeX, PDF, ODF etc. ?
Documentation tools like XSLTDOC or XSLDOC generating HTML only.

Thanks Christian.

 

[Joseph J. Kesselman]

The obvious one would be an XSL-FO processor, which is what XSLT was
originally designed to prepare data for. Apache's version, FOP, can
produce PDFs. Depending on your input, there may already be an XSLT
stylesheet which produces FOP markup that you'd be happy with, or at
least that you can use as a starting point; if not, you get to write
your own XSLT for the purpose.

There have been various XML-to-LaTeX approaches implemented; the most
common one is to come up with an XML syntax for LaTeX markup and then
run a postprocessor which renders that into standard LaTeX.
Theoretically you could go direct to LaTeX with an appropriate
stylesheet, using text output mode. Again, if there isn't already an
XSLT stylesheet for your input document type which does what's needed,
you get to write your own.

 

[Peter Flynn]

Hi,

are there any documentation tools (like doxygen) for XSLT which could
generate ``offline''-documentation formats like TXT, LaTeX, PDF, ODF etc. ?
Documentation tools like XSLTDOC or XSLDOC generating HTML only.

I haven't seen one (but then I haven't been looking) so I think you'll
need to write your own: if you're starting from their HTML, rewriting
their code to produce LaTeX probably isn't difficult, depending on the
quality of their code. The advantage of going via LaTeX rather than via
FO is that you get to make use of LaTeX's foreknowledge of document
smarts which can be a significant saver in time and money, and a big
jump up in quality. The downside is you need to learn LaTeX properly to
do it.

///Peter