How can I view DocBook files on Windows 7?

Question

I want to view Docbook .xml files on Windows 7. How can I do that?

Answer 1

I've worked with Docbook. Editing is the whole point of its existence, and I can't imagine anybody creating simple software just for reading it.

I'd suggest converting the document to PDF. Linux has a program for that purpose.

Answer 2

As I understand it, DocBook is usually only written and edited. It is then processed into a different format (Postscript, HTML & c.) for distribution and reading. Latex is generally handled the same way, compare also compiling source code into computer programs before use.

Nonetheless, Lyx promises to be a graphical editor for DocBook. It's available for many platforms. I have never used it for DocBook, but for Latex it works well unless you want to edit a complex existing document. This is an unfortunate problem inherent to creating software that needs to parse an extensible language. Lyx also tends to not preserve parts and aspects of the source file that don't affect the output, which can surprise and/or aggravate other persons, but this is irrelevant if you just want to read files.