Re: PDF backend for (Open)Jade

Subject: Re: PDF backend for (Open)Jade
From: "Christof Drescher" <drescher@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 7 May 2000 12:47:21 +0200
Hi Brandon,

>    I have to echo Matthias' comment... this is great!  I'd have to say
> the most difficult step in creating a more advanced backend based on
> Postscript/PDF is just getting something started.  Now that there's
> something to build on, the potential is great.
>    As far as Matthias' remark on the need for two-way communication
> with the DSSSL engine, I'd have to think that the potential exists for
> an interface to be created for that purpose, without totally
> reengineering what you have.  Basically, I would think it possible to
> replace the portion that reads in the FOT with a module to interface
> to OpenJade through the normal backend mechanism.
>    By creating an interface that would be appropriate for either the
> FOT reader or the OpenJade interface, the same code could be used
> either way.  Part of the interface would be a way for each
> implementation to indicate to the rest of the backend whether it
> supports indirect flow objects.  (I *love* Java!)

So do I :-) We'll habe to take a look at the requirements and the steps to
be taken on the Jade portion of the code, since I doubt it is really easy to
habe the C++ executables to interact with JAVA programs too easily. But I'm
willing to cooperate

> > P.S.: If someone has good place to keep this backend for downloading
> > (e.g. on the OpenJade-pages), please let me know; if there should be
> > enough interest, I could make it available maybe to the end of next
> > week.
> >
>    You could either create it as its own SourceForge project, as Peter
> has done with his Braifo backend, or we might be able to create it as
> a "subproject" under OpenJade, there.  Matthias (or Didier)?

Maybe I will disappoint (some of) you now, but at the moment I do not intend
to release the source code to the public, since there are many parts of it
which are and will be used for other (commercial) projects I'm working on
(like the PDF writing code, the layout engine etc.). The hard part was,
after all, NOT the analysis and processing of the DSSSL objects, but
underlying enging to produce nicely formatted PDF pages... :-)

Of course, cooperation (like above) for implementing more features by
agreeing on certain interfaces is no problem at all.

Today, I'm working on putting the existing version (as JAVA code) together
with some infos on the usage of it into a ZIP file for downloading; if there
should be some space related to the OpenJade pages to put this on, I'd be
happy to send the file to someone...

Read ya,
Christof



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