pdf toolchain notes & suggestions
by Mark Johnson
Hi All,
I believe the broken part of the FDP XML -> PDF toolchain is due to
the passivetex component of the TeX backend.
After discussing the situation with Sebastian Rahtz, the upstream
developer of passivetex, I sadly report that passivetex is no longer
being developed or maintained. The last update, in fact, was in
November 2003.
When I asked Sebastian about the status of passivetex, here's what
he had to say (he gave permission to post his remarks, BTW):
> PassiveTeX does what it does, ie about 90% of FO, and thats where
> its frozen. Fixing the bugs are now so hard, I cannot do them.
The > decision to parse the XML using TeX seemed like a good idea,
> but in practice its a dead end. If I was starting again I'd work
> on a translator to plain TeX markup. thats doable, but a lot of
> work.
>
> [...]
>
> I convert my XML direct to LaTeX, and process that. It gives
> better results, faster :-}
>
> [...]
>
> others may disagree, but I don't see this particular path
(parsing > XSLFO using xmltex) ever being able to work 100%
Hence I think it's time to consider a different toolchain for pdf
output.
Two possibilities come to mind: FOP [1] and dblatex [2]. IMO fop
would be the better choice as customizing the output requires XSL
expertise, whereas dblatex requires LaTeX expertise to customize the
output.
If we were to adopt FOP, it would be nice to get it working under
gcj (via gij), so that we stick to a 100% free toolchain, though I
think it will also run under kaffe [3]. Some testing would clearly
need to be done... And if such a toolchain proves sufficient for the
needs of the FDP, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to find
someone to package FOP.
I hope this info helps us get to work on building a new XML -> PDF
toolchain:)
Anyway, that's my $0.02.
Cheers,
Mark
[1] http://xml.apache.org/fop/
[2] http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/
[3] http://www.kaffe.org/
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Mark Johnson <mjohnson(a)redhat.com>
OS Product Documentation
Engineering, Red Hat, Inc. <http://www.redhat.com>
Tel: 919.754.4151 Fax: 919.754.3708
GPG fp: DBEA FA3C C46A 70B5 F120 568B 89D5 4F61 C07D E242
18 years, 11 months
kernel-compilation-tutorial
by Kevin H. Hobbs
I just got frustrated with the flame war on kernel building.
I'd like to at least try to put together something along the lines of
documentation.
So far I've gone to the fabulous steps of:
export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@rhlinux.redhat.com:/usr/local/CVS
cvs -z3 login
cvs -z3 co fedora-docs
cd fedora-docs/
cp -r example-tutorial/ kernel-compilation-tutorial
cd kernel-compilation-tutorial/
mv example-tutorial-en.xml kernel-compilation-tutorial-en.xml
gvim ~/.vimrc
gvim kernel-compilation-tutorial-en.xml
gvim Makefile
make
All this is useless except that the page is no longer blank.
18 years, 11 months
Look of Fedora docs
by Vladimir Djokic
good day,
writers. while doing some mockups of docs look for fsn.org.yu at
http://www.gnome-ppp.org/fsn/template.html, i thought about doing some
work for fedora community. what i want is to `upgrade the look` of
fedora docs? should i try do something pretty (like novell with novell
linux desktop will have) or is it a no-no? to do some mockups so you can
see what i'm talking about?
bye,
vladeck.
--
"Theres no room for ideals in this mechanical place. There has to be
passion. "
18 years, 12 months
Missing end-tag in the documentation guide
by christian.huegel
Hi everyone,
i´ve noticed a small error on the documentation guide (Chapter 6.29)
The line:
<xref linkend="ch-tutorial"><xref> and <xref
linkend="s1-tutorial-parent"></xref>
should be:
<xref linkend="ch-tutorial"></xref> and <xref
linkend="s1-tutorial-parent"></xref>
It´s a missing end-tag. Can you correct this?
Have a nice day
Christian
18 years, 12 months
Good bittorrent Client
by Luis Motta
Where I find a good bit torrent client?
Thaks!
fedora Core 2 User
Brasil (folks, it is an "S")
19 years
Apacheconf docs screenshots
by Vladimir Djokic
good day,
could you please update (if already not) screenshots of apacheconf in
docs, since the new is upon apacheconf?
bye,
vladeck.
--
"Theres no room for ideals in this mechanical place. There has to be
passion. "
19 years
version control on website
by Karsten Wade
How are we going to organize different versions of documents on the
website?
Option 1. By FC version, then document.
f.r.c/docs
-> FC2
-> Tutorial 1
-> Tutorial 2
...
-> FC3
-> Tutorial 1
-> Tutorial 2
...
Option 2. By document, then FC version.
f.r.c/docs
-> Tutorial 1
-> FC2
-> FC3
-> Tutorial 2
-> FC2
-> FC3
...
Option 3. Other ideas?
--
Karsten Wade, RHCE, Tech Writer
a lemon is just a melon in disguise
http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
gpg fingerprint: 2680 DBFD D968 3141 0115 5F1B D992 0E06 AD0E 0C41
19 years
draft notice text
by Tammy Fox
I was about to add the common draft notice file from bug #132415, but I
wanted to discuss the wording of the notice a bit more. (This was
discussed on the Hardening Doc Preview thread, but I am starting a new
one with a more appropriate subject.)
The text proposed for the note is as follows:
<note>
<title>Draft Notice</title>
<para>This version of this document is not yet affiliated with the Fedora Docs
Project. It is a draft, and may be submitted to the project for
review/approval at a later date. Until that time, that document will
be receiving constant updates, and may change frequently.
</para>
</note>
Saying that it isn't affliliated with the Fedora Docs Project might be
misleading. It is being worked on for the project, but it isn't final
yet. Also, it would be nice to tell readers how to help with the
document if they are reading it. So, how about the following:
<note>
<title>DRAFT</title>
<para>
This is a draft version of the document. It is subject to change
at any time and may not have been tested for technical accuracy
yet. If you find any errors, please report them via Bugzilla in bug
&BUG-NUM;.
</para>
</note>
Then, in the parent file, the entity &BUG-NUM; would a link to the
Bugzilla entry for that document.
Thoughts?
Tammy
19 years
