status on FOP, Saxon

[Karsten Wade]

Since FC5 has slipped its schedule so far out, we were hoping we might
get a toolchain using an ecj compiled FOP into test3.

We're currently relying upon a hacked version of xmlto that includes FOP
and Saxon as targets, and we need to get FOP and Saxon in Fedora Extras
to justify the upstream maintainer accepting the patch.

1. Where are we on a natively compiled FOP?
2. Can we compile Saxon with ecj as well?
3. Are there any volunteers to package these for Extras?

AFAIK, _no_one_ has a 100% free modern DocBook XML toolchain that builds
PDFs without a hitch and is in-step with the upstream DocBook project.
Fedora Documentation Project wants to provide that free toolchain, and
we are relying upon you all to help us get there.

Thanks - Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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Content Services                          Fedora Documentation Project
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[Thomas Fitzsimmons]

Hi,

On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 13:47 -0800, Karsten Wade wrote:
>  Since FC5 has slipped its schedule so far out, we were hoping we
> might
>  get a toolchain using an ecj compiled FOP into test3.
>  
>  We're currently relying upon a hacked version of xmlto that includes FOP
>  and Saxon as targets, and we need to get FOP and Saxon in Fedora Extras
>  to justify the upstream maintainer accepting the patch.
>  
>  1. Where are we on a natively compiled FOP? 
I've been focusing on getting upstream Batik building on GNU Classpath.
To support all of its features, we need to implement
javax.imageio.plugins.jpeg for which there is currently a partial
implementation that I'm working to finish.  This work will probably not
be completed before FC5 final ships.

That said, we may be able to pare some of these features out of Batik to
support just enough for FOP to run.  I just noticed that JPackage has
already packaged FOP, Saxon and Batik and that we include them in RHAPS,
so I'm going to see how far I get building them on the free stack.

>  2. Can we compile Saxon with ecj as well? 
I'm not sure; I'll let you know how far I get.

>  3. Are there any volunteers to package these for Extras? 
Yes, I'll package and maintain them since they're excellent test cases
for GNU Classpath's Java2D support.

>  
>  AFAIK, _no_one_ has a 100% free modern DocBook XML toolchain that builds
>  PDFs without a hitch and is in-step with the upstream DocBook project.
>  Fedora Documentation Project wants to provide that free toolchain, and
>  we are relying upon you all to help us get there. 
Yes, Batik is my top priority for my GNU Classpath work.  While that
work is ongoing I may be able to rig something for FOP-use in the short
term.

Tom

[Thomas Fitzsimmons]

Hi,

On Wed, 2006-02-08 at 01:23 -0500, Thomas Fitzsimmons wrote:
>  Hi,
>  
>  On Tue, 2006-02-07 at 13:47 -0800, Karsten Wade wrote:
>  > Since FC5 has slipped its schedule so far out, we were hoping we might
>  > get a toolchain using an ecj compiled FOP into test3.
>  > 
>  > We're currently relying upon a hacked version of xmlto that includes FOP
>  > and Saxon as targets, and we need to get FOP and Saxon in Fedora Extras
>  > to justify the upstream maintainer accepting the patch.
>  > 
>  > 1. Where are we on a natively compiled FOP?
>  
>  I've been focusing on getting upstream Batik building on GNU Classpath.
>  To support all of its features, we need to implement
>  javax.imageio.plugins.jpeg for which there is currently a partial
>  implementation that I'm working to finish.  This work will probably not
>  be completed before FC5 final ships.
>  
>  That said, we may be able to pare some of these features out of Batik to
>  support just enough for FOP to run.  I just noticed that JPackage has
>  already packaged FOP, Saxon and Batik and that we include them in RHAPS,
>  so I'm going to see how far I get building them on the free stack.
>  
>  > 2. Can we compile Saxon with ecj as well?
>  
>  I'm not sure; I'll let you know how far I get. 
I worked my way through building Batik's dependencies today.  Most of
them are not in Fedora Core or Extras so I'll have to maintain them
myself.  Here's the list so far:

libreadline-java
ht2html
ant-contrib
jython
mysql-connector-java

With a few hacks around Sun-specific classes these packages all build on
the free stack.

Batik also requires Rhino which requires jaxen, dom4j and maven, which
itself has 80 dependencies most of which are not in Fedora.

I'm hoping that Rhino is only needed for SVG Javascript support and that
I can build Batik without this support.  I assume you don't need it for
documentation.

I'll keep you updated on my progress building Batik-sans-Rhino.

>  
>  > 3. Are there any volunteers to package these for Extras?
>  
>  Yes, I'll package and maintain them since they're excellent test cases
>  for GNU Classpath's Java2D support. 
Actually these packages should be maintained in Fedora Extras by the
RHAPS maintainers.  I'll see if this is an option.

Tom

[Karsten Wade]

On Wed, 2006-02-08 at 18:31 -0500, Thomas Fitzsimmons wrote:

>  I worked my way through building Batik's dependencies today. 
> Most of
>  them are not in Fedora Core or Extras so I'll have to maintain them
>  myself.  Here's the list so far: 
Just a follow-up, thanks for the update.  If there is anything that
Fedora Documentation Project folks can do to help ... and we'll be
testing Saxon and FOP as soon as the packages are in Extras, so you have
that help ... just let myself, Tommy Reynolds
<Tommy.Reynolds(a)MegaCoder.com&gt;, and/or fedora-docs-list.

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
gpg fingerprint:  2680 DBFD D968 3141 0115    5F1B D992 0E06 AD0E 0C41   
Content Services                          Fedora Documentation Project
http://www.redhat.com/docs   http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi Karsten,

On Tue, 2006-02-14 at 17:45 -0800, Karsten Wade wrote:
>  Just a follow-up, thanks for the update.  If there is anything that
>  Fedora Documentation Project folks can do to help ... and we'll be
>  testing Saxon and FOP as soon as the packages are in Extras, so you have
>  that help ... just let myself, Tommy Reynolds
>  <Tommy.Reynolds(a)MegaCoder.com&gt;, and/or fedora-docs-list. 
I believe in this case the problem is well understood. But if anybody
that has some application that doesn't work (completely) on the free
stack using gcj at this time attends Fosdem next week (February 25 and
26) in Brussels please stop by in the "GNU Classpath & Friends" room:
http://www.fosdem.org/2006/index/dev_room_classpath/
http://developer.classpath.org/mediation/Fosdem2006

We have a "Show your App/Hack your App" session that would be a great
time to sit down and get things integrated/fixed. Sometimes the
gcj/classpath hackers don't know which programs/libraries are out there
and/or how they fit together and sometimes the packagers/users don't
know which compiler/library/runtimes tricks can be used to get things
working. It also help us set priorities for things to work on. Knowing
there are eager users to try out your stuff is always encouraging! :)

Cheers,

Mark

[Erwin Rol]

On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 10:22 +0100, Mark Wielaard wrote:
>  Hi Karsten,
>   
>  I believe in this case the problem is well understood. But if
> anybody
>  that has some application that doesn't work (completely) on the free
>  stack using gcj at this time attends Fosdem next week (February 25 and
>  26) in Brussels please stop by in the "GNU Classpath & Friends" room:
>  http://www.fosdem.org/2006/index/dev_room_classpath/
>  http://developer.classpath.org/mediation/Fosdem2006
>  
>  We have a "Show your App/Hack your App" session that would be a great
>  time to sit down and get things integrated/fixed. Sometimes the
>  gcj/classpath hackers don't know which programs/libraries are out there
>  and/or how they fit together and sometimes the packagers/users don't
>  know which compiler/library/runtimes tricks can be used to get things
>  working. It also help us set priorities for things to work on. Knowing
>  there are eager users to try out your stuff is always encouraging! :) 
It is a shame i can't be there, because I am currently working on Open
Xchange for GCJ, and that brings up some missing stuff in classpath,
especially the Naming and Ldap support. I got a mega hack in place now,
that uses parts of the latest classpath CVS, the apache directory CVS
and some own code. 

If anybody in interested in it and wants to take a look, i can upload a
SRPM later today. Keep in mind that Open Xchange isn't all that easy to
setup (yer not done with installing the RPM, because LDAP and postgres
also have to be instialized with data and access rights).

- Erwin