Re: a DSSSL typesetter

Subject: Re: a DSSSL typesetter
From: s.rahtz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sebastian Rahtz)
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 22:39:44 +0100
Aleksandar Bakic writes:
 > Is anyone (a company or an individual) working on a typesetting
 > software that understands DSSSL specifications? I have been thinking
 > of learning TeX's internals and developing software that would produce
 > DVI files from DSSSL specifications. (I am not sure whether DVI format
 > can support all what is in DSSSL, but plan to find out.) My preferred

I don't see any problem with dvi supporting DSSSL flow objects, since
its very very low level, but you'd have (of course) to write a
complete paragraph and page layout engine. This would have to be as
complex as TeX. 

Some suggestions:

 - if you want to write to a low-level format, PDF is probably much
    more useful than dvi
 - you can use the Jade DSSSL processor and its TeX backend, and work
    with the jadetex macros to process the result
 - you could work on the lout backend for Jade, and use lout as your
    typesetter

My gut feeling is that TeX (or better, its Unicode-using child, Omega)
is *almost* able to deal with all the theoretical requirements of
DSSSL, but I would not put money on it. Until someone writes a 
DSSSL engine that implements the entire spec, its hard to find out.

Sebastian


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


Current Thread
  • a DSSSL typesetter
    • Aleksandar Bakic - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id QAA04710Thu, 7 May 1998 16:48:59 -0400 (EDT)
      • Sebastian Rahtz - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id GAA22080Fri, 8 May 1998 06:06:17 -0400 (EDT) <=
        • Brandon Ibach - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id OAA16824Fri, 8 May 1998 14:51:21 -0400 (EDT)
          • G. Ken Holman - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id PAA17293Fri, 8 May 1998 15:11:48 -0400 (EDT)
          • Sebastian Rahtz - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id EAA24156Mon, 11 May 1998 04:54:23 -0400 (EDT)
          • Brandon Ibach - from mail1.ability.netby web4-1.ability.net (8.8.5/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA14042Mon, 11 May 1998 22:35:57 -0400 (EDT)