RE: About a very useful tool

["Didier PH Martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Linda,

<YourComment>
Could you explain how you configured EditPlus to work with the SGMLkit?
Because I would like very much to try it out!

<Reply>
We liked so much the editor that we are negotiating with them to bundle it
with the document explorer :-)

To make the editor work with the SGML Kit is easy if you have IE 4.x or 5.x.
In fact, EditPlus embed IE. As you noticed, when you select View->In browser
(in the menu bar), editplus add a new tab (edit plus, support a multiple
document interface where each document is set active or has the focus with a
tab - fastest and better than the classical multiple window stuff). This new
tab is the browser (IE) and you can see the transformed document in it. You
can then go back and forth from the source text you edit and the rendered
view. Here is what I do to edit my XML - DSSSL documents and test the dsssl
script. The funny thing is that you have nothing to do, the SGMLKit is
already compatible with anything using the browser.

To edit and test my dsssl scripts In editPlus:
a) I open a XML document(get a tab in the bottom to identify the document)
b) I open the DSSSL script document again in edit plus (get a new tab in the
bottom)
c) I edit my dsssl document
d) When my dsssl script is ready for testing, I select the XML document tab
and then get the document appear.
e) I select View->in browser (in the menu bar), then a new tab is added  and
the document already transformed appears in the last tab.

If the browser is already there, you just select the browser tab and use the
refresh command (a small icon in the taskbar) to get the XML+DSSSL document
transformed.

Off course, all this also work with SGML documents not only XML Documents.

It works for:
RTF if you have Word installed, word is an active document and then will be
started "in place" in the browser.
SGML if you transform into HTML/CSS the browser will interpret that (of
course).
HTML will be rendered in the browser. The Talva DSSSL engine (based as you
know on James Clark Jade) is compiled with the HTML option. it generates
HTML and CSS code for a small FOs subset (paragraph, sequence), We are
upgrading this backend to support more FOs and are actually expending this
with new FO to bring dsssl in tune with on-line browsers. For example, the
paragraph object do not have a background color, we are adding this new
property. We will then take the relay (James is too busy with XSL) and
submit this for a DSSSL 2 standard. So, give some youth revival to this
language to better adapt it to on-line publishing. We internally call this
version: DSSSL-Return of the Jedi :-)

It does not work for
MIF except if you have a MIF plug-in or viewer that can work in IE. I didn't
found any, but if anyone knows one, I'll be glad to known where I can find
one.
TEX I am trying hard and send several mail to Sebastian to have JadeTex work
with the IBM Tex Plug-in named TechExplorer but it seems that Sebastian used
some features hard to integrate in the plug-in. But I am still investigating
this with IBM guys (techExplorer designer: Bob Sutor). So, this is work in
progress.
FOT. Obviously, no viewer can display that. But if people in this list ask
me to add this backend, I'll just let it display in the browser as simple
text (this is not a big problem, just ask and it will be done).

What to do in your SGML or XML document to make it work?
a) a style sheet PI like the following example:
SGML: <?stylesheet href="myScript.dsl" type="text/dsssl" format="rtf">
XML: <?xml-stylesheet href="MyScript.dsl" type="text/dsssl" format="rtf"?>
Note: discussions with Chris Lilley (W3) lead us to modify the PI schema to
media="screen,rtf" instead of format="rtf" but this will be available in the
next release. The current release still uses the format property.

b) from the SCRIPTS file. if your document is a SGML document with an
external DOCTYPE. the best thing is to get a SCRIPTS file entry so that your
SGML document is really independent form all rendering references. A COMMAND
line has two markups 1- a DOCTYPE markup 2- a script markup like in the
following example
COMMAND <DOCTYPE="-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN"> <script = dsssl -t
rtf -o $DOCVIEW -d "$SCRIPT_DIR/DocBook/print/DocBook.dsl" >
NOTE: The script command line is not enclosed with "". Only each parameter
path. If a path contains spaces, enclose the path with "". $DOCVIEW means
that the document is displayed in the document explorer DOCVIEW or the
browser. $SCRIPT_DIR is the directory where the SCRIPTS file is located,
place your scripts in the same directory or a sub directory.

So, as you see, you have nothing to do to have edit plus work with the Talva
SGMLKit this because, Edit plus contains the browser component (IE) and the
SGMLKit is a component used by the browser.

Note: The SGMLKit is part of the browser. I mean here a component that
seamlessly integrates with IE (current version) and in a future release with
Mozilla. To verify this, just enter in the browser (IE) address bar a URL
pointing to a SGML document. Actually, only file URL are working (we have
found a major bug in IE MIME filter mechanism and are waiting from Microsoft
a Workaround). So if you type, for example,
file://d:mydir/mydir2/mydocument.sgml and that this document has a DSSSL
script associated to it either with a PI or through the SCRIPTS file, it
will be rendered and displayed in the browser. (HTML, RTF and SGML->HTML/CSS
formats). Like I said, RTF documents will be displayed either in word or in
word viewer and HTML/CSS documents displayed obviously in the browser.

Conclusion: SMLKit is working without any modifications with Edit Plus and
so it is with the browser IE.

I personally found that my cycle Edit - Test has been reduced tremendously
since I am using Edit plus. I just click on a tab and I move from the script
to the result. Also, you'll notice that, if the DSSSL script interpretation
result with errors. The errors are displayed in the browser window so, if
you have a lot of error, you can scroll through them instead of being
confined to a small console window. You can croll because the interpretation
errors are displayed as a text inside the browser. Edit Plus, display the
line+column number so it is easier to find the error in the script text.

Try this, and give me feedback on your edit - test cycle. It is like going
from a command line environment to an integrated environment.

PS: My template file is not finished. So it just highligth only some
keywords. But as soon as my template is finished and working well, I'll post
a notice and a link from where you can download it.

Regards
Didier PH Martin
mailto:martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.netfolder.com


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