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Re: Re: Generating PDF


Dan York wrote:


> What I want to do next is work on going *directly* from DocBook XML
> to PDF.  For non-commercial options, there is FOP and PassiveTeX. 
> Unfortunately, I was doing something on my system one day and wound up no
> longer having a working Java environment, so FOP is out until I can 
> find the time to figure out what is wrong.  I just downloaded PassiveTeX,
> and, likewise, haven't had the time to figure out the installation.
> Both of these are things that I just have to make the time to do...
> and I'm not sure when I will be able to do so.
> 
> So that's where I am at... unfortunately, there's nothing anyone can
> really do to help me! It's just something I've got to do.

I /can/ offer up some 'slow down' advice.  I've been fiddling with FOP 
for a few weeks now, and as of three days ago (that's the last daily 
snapshot I've tried) it's definitely not ready for use in processing 
books.  All of the large file problems have been addressed, but the 
output still leaves a lot to be desired.

TOC is horrible (the lines are justified rather than dot-filled)
Internal links disappear
References have issues
and some other stuff that I can't recall now...

As far as I know, all have been traced to being FOP bugs.  PassiveTeX is 
reportedly better on most fronts, though FOP is seeing more development. 
  I haven't been able to get PassiveTeX working (though I've learned a 
lot about installing TeX macros from my recent TeXLive and JadeTeX 
adventures, so maybe I'll tackle it again in a few days once my current 
book is off to the printer).

I too am eagerly awaiting being able to use an XSL toolchain, and had 
already switched one of my documents and build scripts over, only to 
find a lot more problems in the output than the DSSSL toolchain.
                                   --
                      Joe Cooper <joe@swelltech.com>
                  Affordable Web Caching Proxy Appliances
                         http://www.swelltech.com


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