DocBook 5: The Definitive Guide

Acknowledgments

This book wouldn’t exist, there wouldn’t have been any point in writing it, were it not for DocBook’s enthusiastic support from an entire community of writers, engineers, managers, and other users. My thanks to you all.

It also wouldn’t exist if my wife was not so understanding and supportive. Writing a book invariably takes more time and effort than one imagines, time first borrowed from, then begged for, and eventually stolen from other activities. Thank you, Deb!

And, to conclude a series, it also wouldn’t exist were it not for Dick Hamilton’s encouragement and hard work. Dick first persuaded me to complete a second edition in print, then offered to publish it. He negotiated with O’Reilly, agreed to edit it, and wrote more of it than he could be persuaded to take credit for. Thank you, Dick.

Several sections in this book use material from DocBook V5.0: The Transition Guide, also known as the “DocBook How-to.” Thanks to Jirka Kosek and Michael Smith for their work on the How-to.

Thanks to Nancy Harrison, Scott Hudson, Mauritz Jeanson, Jirka Kosek, and Larry Rowland for their technical review of the book.

Thanks to Bob Stayton for being Secretary to the Technical Committee, and to Scott Hudson for chairing the eLearning and Publisher’s Subcommittees and for being the driving force behind those two initiatives. Thanks also to the entire DocBook Technical Committee for contributing time every month to the continued maintenance of DocBook.