“Modern Jive — A Dancer's Guide” was created using a number of different tools:
The main editing and production machine was an aging Pentium 133MHz desktop, running the GNU/Linux operating system, currently SuSE 8.2.
Other editing machines used ran various versions of the Windows operating system, in conjunction with the Redhat Cygwin environment.
The other main development requirement was an installed Java environment, making cross-platform development much easier.
The master XML file was edited in Vim, Emacs, Palm notepad, etc.
The master XML file was validated using xmllint.
XHTML (multiple and single), text, rtf, LaTeX and BibTeX files were created by transforming the master XML file using the excellent Saxon XSLT processor, and a number of custom XSL(T) stylesheets and Java extensions.
XHTML files were checked using HTML Tidy.
The LaTeX files use the hyperref package to include hyperlinks in the (eventual) PDF output.
A custom style file was written to generate LaTeX output.
A custom BibTeX style file was written to generate printable LaTeX output.
DVI files were created from Latex sources by processing them using LaTeX, BibTeX and makeindex.
PostScript files were created from DVI files using dvips -Ppdf.
PDF files were created from PostScript files using Ghostscript (ps2pdf).
Musical fragments were created using GNU Lilypond.
Vector line-drawings were created using Xfig.
EPS files were created by applying TransFig to Xfig drawings.
PNG images were created by applying TransFig (and implicitly Ghostscript) to Xfig drawings.
PNG image colourmaps were optimised for web usage using netpbm utilities (pnmremap).
PNG image sizes were optimised using pngrewrite and pngcrush.
Copyright messages were added to PNG images using the netpbm utilities (pnmtopng).
The Weasel document reader for Palm handheld computers was used to test the ASCII text version, and for making annotations “on the move”.
Word 2000 was used to check that the RTF file could be loaded, and to check grammar and spelling.
XHTML files were tested in a number of browsers, including: Mozilla/Phoenix, Opera, Amaya, Konqueror, Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 4 and lynx.
A number of trivial custom applications were written to aid tracking down faults in the XML document, especially the presence of multi-byte characters (e.g. from including Palm pilot notes).