Re: (dsssl) DSSSL primer?

Subject: Re: (dsssl) DSSSL primer?
From: Tony Graham <Tony.Graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 11:53:46 +0100
janusz.prusaczyk@xxxxxx wrote at  6 Sep 2001 11:22:31 +0200:
 > I did try to use OpenJade before with some simple files, with some success.
 > But that time my files were in different Windows encodings and I did not
 > know how to make Jade accept them, so I used XSL.
 > 
 > Yesterday I downloaded HyBrick and I thought it is good opportunity to learn

AFAIK, HyBrick is based on Jade, so you're still using Jade, just an
earlier version than OpenJade.

 > more about DSSSL. So I have a few questions:
 > 
 > 1.	Is there some kind of primer/handbook/specification of DSSSL
 > available for downloading?

See http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/dsssl.html for the best list of
DSSSL material that I know of.

 > 2.	Now all my files are in UTF-8 encoding. Tony Graham explains that
 > you need to set system 
 > 	variable SP_ENCODING to UTF-8 to process such files. Anything else
 > one should know about
 > 	working with such encoded files?

Not to my knowledge.

 > 3.	I am using different scripts, mostly Chinese, some Hebrew and
 > Arabic. Is it any problem?
 > 	(I mean having the glyphs correctly displayed, and right to left
 > direction handling.
 > 	Target format will be RTF and MIF.)

That probably depends on your version of Word or FrameMaker.

The example in "Unicode: A Primer" includes Japanese, Cyrillic, and
Hebrew.  The Hebrew in the example did not appear in the correct
visual order when I tried it with Word 97.  It's possible that Word
2000 does a better job (but that would be a task for a second
edition).

 > 4.	I am going to use some home made true type fonts encoded in user
 > area of unicode (it is 
 > 	going to be cuneiform)? Will Jade process it?

Try them and see.

 > 5.	Is DSSSL offering means of typesetting in top-to-bottom direction?
 > (Mongolian in Uighur 
 > 	script) Or maybe combining glyphs in groups (Something like egyptian
 > hieroglyphs - they 
 > 	are written from right to left, or from left to right, but some of
 > them are placed over 
 > 	others, sometimes glyphs cross each other)? I know this is stupid
 > question, as RTF or MIF 
 > 	do not allow such things, (do they? But for example TeX, postscript
 > do allow this.) but 

There's no point comparing DSSSL and PostScript.

 > 	maybe somebody who has something wise to tell on this subject will
 > use this question as
 > 	pretext. 

DSSSL? yes.  Jade/HyBrick/OpenJade? no.

DSSSL was designed to support all manner of writing directions, but
that doesn't mean that Jade implements them, especially since Jade's
backends don't necessarily support them.

Regards,


Tony Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XML Technology Center - Dublin        mailto:tony.graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sun Microsystems Ireland Ltd                       Phone: +353 1 8199708
Hamilton House, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3            x(70)19708

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

Current Thread