DOCBOOK-APPS: pdfjadetex vs. upgrade vs. PositionPreference?

[Lane Stevens <lane@cycletime.com>]

My question:  What might have changed in pdftex (I'm pretty confident that
is where the change is) to cause a change in the spacing of docbook
titlepage elements?  How do I address this??  In particular, I am
comfortable working out spacing of other items if I can cause that the legal
notice appear at the bottom of the page (it used to...).

The background:  I have just upgraded my (previously stable) RH 6.2
environment to RH 7.1.  I am using the RH-supplied openjade/pdftex tool
chain with the latest modular stylesheets.  That combination of tools
resulted in extra pages after each of title page(s) and TOC page.

I upgraded to pdftex 3.11, which solved the extra-page problem.  This leaves
me with (I hope) only an issue of titlepage spacing.

Documents generated with my previous tool chain had a title page with three
sections spaced across the page - Title, author/sponsor, and legal notice.
I had used PositionPreference: 'bottom (perhaps without effect???) to cause
the legal notice to be positioned at the bottom of the page.  Now, with the
set of tools that I am using, the titlepage elements appear in succession,
without any spacing in between.  This places things at the top of the
document without any intervening white space.

Has there been a change that affected PositionPreference?  Any other changes
that would have altered the spacing of elements on the titlepage?

Thanks,
Lane.
-- 
Lane Stevens
Terrapin Technologies, Inc.
http://www.cycletime.com