RE: [xsl] FOP - what, where, when, how?

["Alastair Growcott" <alastairg at pipstechnology dot co dot uk>]

Many thanks for your reply.


> Joerg Heinicke
>
> > I currently am successfully converting the XML to HTML via XSL such
> > that when I double click on the XML file, IE6 automatically
> runs and
> > displays the XML as HTML. Can I do this when converting
> into PDF? I.e.
> > if I double click on the XML it will automatically be displayed by
> > Adobe Acrobat reader?
>
> No and never. XSL FO, to which you can transform via XSLT, and PDF is
> not the same. You still need a renderer. Maybe there will be a
> PDF-renderer-engine-plugin anytime. But until that date
> definitively not.


I've heard and seen suggestions that PDF is an ASCII format, although
when I open PDF files they seem to have a lot of encoded binary
information. I also know that Windows opens .xml files in IE and that IE
can display (or be told to display) files using Adobe Acrobat, and that
XML files can specify an XSL file to use for display.

Is PDF an ASCII format, and if so can anyone point me at a description
of it?

Rather than use FOP, would it be workable to have the XML file specify
an XSL file to convert it to an XML file using XSL-FO, that in turn
specifies an XSL file that converts it to a PDF file, and somewhere
along the way have a line that tells IE to view it with Adobe Acrobat? I
appreciate that this would be a lot of work, but very useful.
Alternatively, for just my application, would it be workable to have an
XSL file that converts my XML format files to PDF directly? I suspect
that since there is no sign of anyone having done this that the answer
is no, but figured it was worth asking.

Alastair.



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