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RE: About FO (was db2latex)


Title: RE: DOCBOOK-APPS: About FO (was db2latex)

<Jeffrey Franks writes:
> > > summary: immature marketplace.
> >
> > I'm a newbie trying to get a lay of the landscape too.
> >
> > Is Sgml/Dsssl a better approach to produce PDF with less pain?
>not really, because there you have have just one processor to
>choose from, with an inadequate implementation

Is`nt it better to have an inadequate implementation with adequate results, than to to live with adequate implementations, which have not even rudimentary knowledge of typesetting basics ?

Typesetting demands for much more than producing a sequence of characters. It is the art of composing a type area. This needs a fundamental knowledge of fonts, page layout and other language depending issues. I personaly doubt that these native FO renderers will ever succeed in their balancing act between the overwhelming XSL spec. details and the art of automatic typesetting.

If non of the classic software manufactors for typesetting systems do support XSL, TEX and RTF will be the only formats, which support the production of adequate print results for the near future.

And even if XSL and FO have the better future, the TEX DSSSL implementation is still more solid and easier to use for beginners, as Passivetex (even if I prefer Passivetex, but I have a programmers background).

IHS Technologies GmbH
Matthias Gutbier
Product Manager

Phone.: +49 89 540924 70
Fax.:   +49 89 540924 10
E-Mail: mgutbier@ihs.de




-----Original Message-----
From: Sebastian Rahtz
[mailto:sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk]
Sent: Dienstag, 24. Juli 2001 14:21
To: jfranks@quik.com
Cc: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: About FO (was db2latex)


Jeffrey Franks writes:
 > > summary: immature marketplace.
 >
 > I'm a newbie trying to get a lay of the landscape too.
 >
 > Is Sgml/Dsssl a better approach to produce PDF with less pain?

not really, because there you have have just one processor to
choose from, with an inadequate implementation

sebastian


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