OSIS? 2.0.1 User's Manual - Web services are running on AMBIB

The examples in this manual have been kept deliberately short and can be downloaded as
a package from the <strong>OSIS</strong> website. After you have gained some basic skill using <strong>OSIS</strong>,
you may want try out more sophisticated editors.
Editing is much easier with an editing program that is aw<strong>are</strong> of XML rules in general,
and <strong>OSIS</strong> in particular. For example, rather than seeing literal tags with pointy-brackets,
you can have a choice of seeing that, or structural views of your document (say, as a tree
or expandable outline), or fully-formatted views to facilitate print layout.
Many products <strong>are</strong> available that can help you edit XML documents. One style shows the
literal XML source file, but colors tags, attributes, and other things to make them stand
out. Most such programs also read an XML schema and ensure that you only insert
elements and attributes <strong>are</strong> permitted by the <strong>OSIS</strong> schema (schemas, such as the <strong>OSIS</strong>
one, decl<strong>are</strong> what elements and attributes <strong>are</strong> permitted where in documents of a
particular kind). One free and helpful tool of this kinds is jEdit, which runs on most
platforms. It can be set up to know about many kinds of files, including XML files, and
<strong>OSIS</strong> in particular.
With such an editor, you can see or print a basic a formatted view by using most any <strong>Web</strong>
browser. Later in this manual <strong>are</strong> instructions for setting up an <strong>OSIS</strong> file with a style
sheet (generally in CSS) so that typical browsers can deal with it.
There <strong>are</strong> also more word-processor-like XML editors, which primarily show a formatted
view defined by some style sheet. These <strong>are</strong> mainly commercial. XML Spy is one such
tool (see http://www.xmlspy.com/); XMetal (see
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel/Products/productInfo&id=10421
52754863) is another.
For high-end layout and typesetting from XML source files, usually a stylesheet language
called XSL-FO is used. Two of the more popular commercial XSL-FO solutions <strong>are</strong> 3b2
(see http://www.3b2.com/), and Antenna House (see http://www.antennahouse.com/).
Non-XML-based composition systems such as Quark and TeX generally have ways to
import XML, but using them for XML composition requires substantial expertise and
effort.
4. Your First <strong>OSIS</strong> Document
Like HTML documents, an <strong>OSIS</strong> document starts with a header, and then goes on to the
actual text content. The header identifies the file as being XML, and as using the <strong>OSIS</strong>
schema. It also provides places to decl<strong>are</strong> a bibliographical description of the work and of
any other works cited; and a place to record a history of editing changes. Here is a short,
but valid, <strong>OSIS</strong> document: