jw(1) converts DocBook or other SGML-based formats into "classical" file formats.
The modular architecture used by jw allows to write plug-in programs (we call them backends and frontends). The backends are specific to output formats while the frontends are specific to input formats. We would like to encourage you to write such programs and to submit them to the docbook-utils project.
While most backends are based on Jame's Clark Jade, or its OpenJade alternative, some of the backends make use of the programs from the docbook2X project. We call these helper programs.