Re: More problems and questions

["Christopher R. Maden" <crism@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:05 9-09-2000 +0000, Anilia Bruho wrote:
> 1. Given that there exist FO renderer(s) written in Java, such as
> FOP, and given that some XSLT processors, such as Saxon, allow
> calling extension functions written in Java, is it possible to
> access FO renderer from within XSLT through this mechanism, with the
> goal of being able to ask the renderer some questions and give it
> some tests and then modify the transformation algorithm based on the
> results returned? An important point here is that the renderer being
> accessed from within XSLT is the same as the one that will produce
> the final output, therefore the results of calling the FO renderer
> functions are guaranteed to be true to the final result. More
> specifically,
>
> - is this method workable in principle?

Yes.

> - if yes, is it possible to implement it right now, with current
> versions of specs and software?

Probably (though IANA Real Programmer), but I suspect it would be a *major* 
PITA.

> 3. In my custom TeX macro packages (they're intended for typesetting
> mostly text with little code or math), I use \catcodes to enable
> "smart" character macros. For instance, a hyphen in the input
> expands into ~---, simple " quotes expand into alternating open and
> closing typographic quotes, _something_ expands into {\it
> something}. This saves a lot of typing, makes source text more
> readable and editable, and moves the presentation aspect where it
> belongs, i.e. in the stylesheet. Naturally, I would like to keep
> using these simple abbreviations in XML/XSL too. As there are no
> "character macros" in XSL, obviously what I need is some kind of an
> input filter that will replace all hyphens in the text (not element
> names or attributes) by  &emdash;, _something_ by
> <em>something</em> etc. Indeed, Saxon documentation says I can write
> such a filter in Java. The problem, as with the previous question,
> is that I'm not a Java programmer. What I probably would be able to
> do is to take someone else's example of a simple search-and-replace
> filter and adopt it to my needs. Therefore the question: Where can I
> find such a working example, for Saxon or any other processor? Is
> there perhaps an easier method to achieve this than coding in Java?

Maybe you want to use SGML instead of XML.  SGML includes a large number of 
optional features, many of which exist explicitly to make keyboard entry 
easier.  You can do what you talk about here with SHORTREFs, though they're 
not a whole lot of fun or widely supported.  XML explicitly leaves these 
features out for a good reason.

-Chris
--
Christopher R. Maden, Senior XML Analyst, Lexica LLC
222 Kearny St., Ste. 202, San Francisco, CA 94108-4510
+1.415.901.3631 tel./+1.415.477.3619 fax
<URL:http://www.lexica.net/> <URL:http://www.oreilly.com/%7Ecrism/>


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