Re: RTF styles from jade? (was Re: (dsssl) How to make a RTFstyles-sheet with DSSSL?)

[Ron Ross <ronross@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Pawson <DaveP@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>>the style expression is used. I think, both in the stylesheet and in the
>>backend, once such a path is taken, it would have to govern nearly every
>>facet of document formating to work, i.e., leave the least possible to
>>default values and inheritance in the RTF (or other backend)
>>interpreter.
>
>
> Would it be possible to have a layered approach?
> Some at the 'higher' level, of styles,
> others passing direct to the lower level?
>
> Then mix and match as needed?

I'm dreaming of a complete styles implimentation, where all formating is
subsumed by paragraph and character styles.

Practically speaking, I'm still figuring out RTF, and am not even ready
to really understand how to use OpenJade C++ class interfaces. And from
a theoretical point of view. . . I haven't a clue. But, obviously, we
would have to allow for what works and what doesn't.

Sorry, I'm probably not the one to answer such questions now.

>> > One significant theoretical difficulty is that flow object
>> > characteristics inherit hierarchically, while the prevailing
>> > "inheritance" of word processing styles is linear. (That is, certain
>> > characteristics of a paragraph in RTF are inherited from the preceding
>> > paragraph if not explicitly set or reset.)
>>
>>I had forgotten about this dumb on/off mechanism for styles in word
>>processing documents (it had come up ages ago in the Abiword list).
>>Still, some things can be done with the "basedon" and "next" rtf-style
>>properties.
>
> If it was made clear what inheritance there is (maybe none)
> then it wouldn't be a problem for that backend.

In RTF, you have the \stylesheet "destinations" to set in the file
header and then reference in the document text. For each named style,
you can then set the \sbasedon and \snext controls (referencing other
stylesheets) to define inheritance and continuity. I don't know how
robust this is (Paul mentioned "certain characteristics" of paragraphs
inheriting differently -- perhaps the style for every paragraph must be
set), but in my experience of converting documents from one format to
another most applications deal rather well with defined styles.

I don't know TEX at all. Paul also mentioned CSS, which has well defined
but implicit inheritance. Results would depend on the standards
conformity of the interpreters (browsers), which have gotten rather
good; a CSS-XHTML/XML backend would be great!

Cheers,

Ron



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