“DocBook is an up-and-coming standard for the formatting of
technical reference materials. A number of publishers can accept
it, as can the Linux Documentation Project and other free
documentation efforts. As more people try to produce
documentation for free software, they are going to go looking for
information on how to use DocBook to that end.”
“Thus far, DocBook: The Definitive Guide is about the only
option they have. That is somewhat unfortunate. This book is a
high-quality reference work, but does not even really try to be a
gentle introduction to DocBook, which is a tremendously complicated
system. I came in hoping for something along the lines of Knuth’s
beautiful TEXbook, but that book does not yet exist for
DocBook….”
“To the extent that this review seems critical, it is probably
unfair. DocBook: The Definitive Guide is only one book, not three.
It is better that it be one well-done book, rather than a mishmash
of two or three mediocre ones. In any case, if you are going to be
writing with DocBook, you need this book. That’s all there is to
it. It’s a top-quality reference, which is exactly what DocBook
authors need.”