Purpose and Scope

The DocBook DTD defines structural and content-based SGML markup for computer documentation, with a primary emphasis on software documentation and related classes of technical documents. Its main high-level hierarchical structures are for books, reference entries (for example, "man pages"), and articles. It is maintained by the Davenport Group (about which see the Davenport archive at http://www.ora.com/davenport/ or ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/davenport/).

DocBook was originally designed to filter existing software documentation, typically marked up with troff, into SGML so that it could then be interchanged among business partners. As such, it describes the structures that many producers of software documentation have encountered in converting large bodies of such material. Over time, DocBook's design has responded to direct SGML writing and publishing needs as well, and it has begun to be supported in off-the-shelf versions of many SGML tools so that it can be used easily from writing through processing and delivery. Dozens of organizations use DocBook for millions of pages of documentation.

Because DocBook is a large and robust DTD, it is quite common for organizations to use only a subset of its markup model. Similarly, because individual organizations often have specific needs that an industry DTD cannot reflect, many users also extend DocBook's markup model. In response, DocBook has been made highly modular and parameterized so that users can create "customization layers" containing their unique DTD specifications while using "real DocBook" wherever they have no need to make changes.

We expect that DocBook will evolve as it is applied to more documents, as more SGML tools come into use, and as users gain more experience in working with it. We are interested in your use of the DocBook DTD and welcome your comments. We are committed to reviewing customizations and evaluating their features for inclusion in future DocBook releases.