Re: [Fwd: Uses of DSSSL]

Subject: Re: [Fwd: Uses of DSSSL]
From: Taco Hoekwater <bittext@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 15:25:21 +0200
David Megginson wrote:
> I prefer Jade to Perl for most of my work, but there are still three
> compelling reasons to use Perl instead of the current version of Jade:
> 
> 1. To handle SGML documents larger than about 1/3 of available memory
>    (when you're processing the ESIS with Perl, you can construct a
>    script which uses memory based only on the depth of the element
>    tree, not on its total node count).
> 
> 2. To add information from other sources (database fetches, Internet
>    connections, other programs on the operating system etc.) during
>    the transform.
> 
> 3. To do complex string manipulation based on regular expressions.
> 

For me personally, there is also:

  4. For automated (font-dependant) calculation of sizes of tables.

  5. I prefer my output (which is TeX always) to be as clean and 
     short as possible.

  6. Querying the typesetting engine. For any TeX backend to work 
     correctly, it needs access to the full TeX engine. In fact,
     perhaps a TeX extension that reads DSSSL specs instead of 
     macros would be the best approach.

In fact, for me the only real reason to look at dsssl at all is
the grove structure in itself, making it easier to look at next-previous 
elements. If perl's sgmls.pm would provide a full grove plan, I would 
probably not use dsssl (read: jade) at all.

Greetings,

Taco Hoekwater

 DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist


Current Thread