FO, FOP and PDF

["Olson, Dave -Systems" <Dave dot Olson at itt dot com>]

I'm embarking on a project to generate documentation in PDF, among other
formats, and I'm hoping to use FOP.  Docbook seems to cover all our needed
features, but after Norm Walsh's comment that "FOP isn't very robust or
complete yet," I'm wondering what level of effort I'm getting into.

We need to do the following:
-TOCs (page numbers)
-index (links or page numbers)
-lists of figures (links or page numbers)
-tables
-embedded images (PNG & GIF)
-bulleted and numbered lists
-nested sections, preferably auto numbered.

I assume I'll need to learn a moderate amount about XML-FO and stylesheet
transformations, and probably modify the DocBook XSL to some degree to get
around FOP quirks, but is it realistic to expect to achieve the above
features with the current version of FOP?  I've read the limitations, and
they seem bearable, but I don't know all the FO features I may need.  Is
this a month project, a six-month effort, or a "FOP just can't do that"?  (I
have 10 years programming experience, but XML is mostly new.)

If FOP is still too immature, can anyone recommend another
Docbook->something->PDF generator that is redistributable?  (We're hoping to
avoid TeX and C++.)

Thanks,
David Olson






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