Confused by old-style SUFFIX and/or implicit rules

[Trevor Jenkins]

I'm trying to use make to handle a DocBook project where my original
document is an SGML file. Various other formats are created from that by a
series of rules. I started looking at the old style SUFFIX rules because I
can predict that, for example, there is a need for a rule

.sgml.xml:
        ${JADE} ...

and then elsewhere one for

.xml.pdf:
        ${FOP} ...

So when I want a PDF version amd there's no XML version (or it's out of
date) then the first rule will be used to generate a suitable XML version
on the way to generating the PDF.

My problem comes that if I specify the required commands in the SUFFIX or
implicit rules then the actual commands have no need of a command. There
being only the one file as prerequiste and (because I need to generate
each format separately) only one target per rule. For example, I want

html: ${SGMLDOC}
        # what goes here?

pdf: ${XMLDOC}
        # and what goes here?

So now I confused myself over what should be the commands for the actual
rules. Do I need to "duplicate" the commands I put in the implicit rules
putting real file names where I had $< in the implicit or what.

[And just in case someone should wonder yes I do need an SGML master file
as there are things I use in there that are not available in XML. For
example, there are marked sections with the IGNORE and INCLUDE status
specified.]

Regards, Trevor

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