Re: foo ... bar Re: Q: XML+XSL transforms to a print-ready format

Subject: Re: foo ... bar Re: Q: XML+XSL transforms to a print-ready format
From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liamquin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 14:43:04 -0400 (EDT)
I wonder if perhaps some calmness would help here? :-)

I've been comntemplating implementing an open source FO to PostScript
program myself for a while now, with the ability to handle moderately
complex page typography.  It will have to wait until I finish the book
on XML and databases that's taking up so much of my time.

XSL came out of the DSSSL-O group that Jon Bosak chaerd back in 1994/5,
e.g. at the "Dog Sledding Skiing and Surfing" meeting Yuri hosted.

The goal then was a subset of DSSSL suitable for online use, and that
could even be supported by editors.

XSL has come a long way since then, but it was never really page-oriented.
Heck, it's not all that typographically oriented, you're not going to
throw Quark away.  There's no way to override kerning pairs or ligatures,
and that's pretty darned basic.

Automatic running headers, cross references
(see Figure 5.1 "black socks" on page 521, upper right),
smart cross references (see Figure 3, opposite page),
sorting an index with page numbers included, footnotes that don't
quite fit on the same page as the reference, table headers that repeat
on subsequent pages, with automatically generated column heading text,
and a table footer that says "page 3 of 5" or "continued", feathering
and vertical balancing of columns, text wrapping around non-erctangular
shapes, text on a path of lines and splies/curves, the list goes on and on.

If you want to do even a basic novel, you're probably going to need
extensions.

Luckily, none of these thigns is new.  There is no new ground to be
broken here in typographic design.

All of the features I have mentioned are *at least* 400 years old.  Well,
except for splines per se :-)

If any of them are not clear, you need to read the literature before
implementing anything.

I would be happy to recommend books and papers.  For that matter, I'll
even cover some of this at my tutorial at MT99 :-)

Lee

-- 
Liam Quin, Barefoot Computing, Toronto;  The barefoot agitator
l i a m q u i n     at    i n t e r l o g    dot   c o m
Ankh on irc.sorcery.net, ankle5/Ankle{MD} on DALnet


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