Re: [docbook-apps] Orderedlists nesting variablelists

[Bob Stayton <bobs@sco.com>]

From: Togan Muftuoglu <toganm@users.sourceforge.net>

> So the question is what can it be done to fix the FOP output in the
> aspect of customizing the stylesheet as I do not see this as a bug for
> the stylesheet

FOP uses the space-before attributes 
in all cases, even when they are within a list-item-body.
I'm not sure that actually violates the XSL spec,
since spaces are considered discardable only at
the top of a reference area, and a list-item-body is
not a reference area.

So your challenge is to remove or set to zero
the space-before attributes in the list-block
and list-item elements for the nested variablelist.
You could start by customizing this template from
fo/lists.xsl:

<xsl:template match="variablelist" mode="vl.as.list">
...
 <fo:list-block id="{$id}"
                provisional-distance-between-starts="{$termlength}"
	        provisional-label-separation="0.25in"
	        xsl:use-attribute-sets="list.block.spacing">

You would probably need to put a role attribute on
such nested lists, or detect that the variablelist's
parent is a listitem element.  The XSL should use a
xsl:choose in such cases to add a custom spacing attribute-set:

    xsl:use-attribute-sets="nested.list.block.spacing"
                            ------

And define the space-before attributes in that attribute-set
as zero size, or remove them.

You'll have to do the same with this template:

<xsl:template match="varlistentry" mode="vl.as.list">
  ...
    <fo:list-item id="{$id}" xsl:use-attribute-sets="list.item.spacing">

and have a 'nested.list.item.spacing' attribute set with
no space-before attributes.  You'll want that xsl:choose
conditional on it being the first varlistentry, because you do
want separation between varlistentry elements in
a nested list.

You'll have to work out the details, but the end result
should have no space-before attributes on the list-block
and first list-item in such nested variablelists.

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
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                                            email: bobs@sco.com