Subject: RE: Future of DSSSL: What about PDF? From: "Didier PH Martin" <martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 12:19:46 -0500 |
Hi Carlos <YourComment> As I understand the page-sequence FOs are not currently implemented by Jade. Though, James has said, implementing the front end part of it should be relatively easy, however no backend can currently support the DSSSL page model. Where can I get some examples on using the page-sequence FOs? It's difficult for me to understand how they should work from the spec. And since there are no tools to play with... I thought about attempting to design such a formatter some time ago. However, it's been only that, just an attempt! One of the key points, of course, is to implement the DSSSL page model and the synchronization flow objects from the start, then a simple-page-sequence would be implemented in terms of the more general page-sequence. There's no gain on not implementing the page model, we already have that. However, after reading the spec several times about the page model, I need some practical examples, to make sure I have the correct interpretation. </YourComment> <Reply> Me too, I am having difficulties to understand the page-sequence FO and would be glad to get an example or someone giving me an example. Maybe, because there isn't any, we can find some meaning by starting a discussion thread on it. I' tell you my understanding: There is two page models: a) window based - the page is a window and the corresponding formatting object is the scroll object. the document can be bigger than the window and a scroll mechanism allows access to the document. This page model conform to today's GUIs. The page could be seen as a huge paper roll :-) b) page based - the page is a surface. this model could be emulated on GUIs or based on a real paper substrate. The main distinction here is that the page is limited in length and the whole document showned as page collection intead of a single page model as with the scroll FO. Both models provide margins or area around the text. So, the page-simple-sequence FO fits case (b). I'll read the specs on the scroll object to be sure, but I think that the document width is limited by the window size and the document length is unlimited. So the document could be longer than the window surface and a scroll mechanism provides access to the whole document. The document width is forced to fit in the window width by reformatting the content when the window is resized. When the document length equal the window length (or I should say window's height) then the scroll becomes optional even not necessary and can be removed from the window's set of interactors. For example HTML is based implicitely on a Scroll FO. In the case of page based, each page has limited dimensions then the display mechanism will show this page separation. <Question> I seems we have now this question, how do we emulate or show on paper a simple-page-sequence. If we take "paper" surfaces, how would we model a simple-page-sequence ? </Question> So, now let's find it. I'll read also the specs again and try an explanation, write it, and if I am wrong we all find the right interpretation :-) So, I'll do my homework and come back with an explanation. Do we all agree on the scroll versus page-xxx interpretation? so that we can say that dsssl basic document presentation objects are of two kinds: GUI based and represented by the scroll object (displayed in a window with the rule previously mentioned) and "paper" based either on real paper surface or emulated in a GUI. The former has documents seen as a big long "paper" (imagine a very long paper). A window is used to see the document and can only see a portion of it. <Question> could the scroll object be larger than the window or the document is always resized to fit in the window's width?</Question>. The latter has pages with limited length. A page is then a limited sized surface and not a big roll :-) When this model is emulated on GUIs, the document is cut into several surfaces with limited length (not a huge roll like the former). The scroll mechanism provides access to the surface collection. Thus, the essential distinction between the former and the latter is that the former (scroll) present the document as a whole and the latter as a collection of pages. I know this is basic, but it helps sometime to go back to the basics to progress further. <Reply> Regards Didier PH Martin mailto:martind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.netfolder.com DSSSList info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist
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