Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: XSL print StyleSheets

[Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>]

Matthew Harrison writes:
 > 3. But I'm still not in print by this route. 'fo' stylesheets produce fo (I'm
 > learning as I go here :?), not tex like the DSSSL print stylesheets
 > and don't quite get me printing. I'm sure I've missed something.
 > How do I get from fo to tex? (or to print by any route, apart from
 > printing html from a browser or using html2ps)?

you can process .fo files with PassiveTeX
(http://users.ox.ac.uk/~rahtz/passivetex), which is the same
technology as jadetex in the DSSSL route. there is no conversion, TeX
can be made read .fo directly.

but

 - I don't know what version of XSL FO  Norm's stylesheets
generate. PassiveTeX is currently the 1999 version, but the March 2000 
stuff will be available shortly (today, if I fix a problem)

 - Norm uses things which P.T. doesn't support yet (in tables, of
course).

basically, FO formatting is still very much bleeding edge. the routes
are

 - FOP. free-standing Java program which does a good job, but does not 
implement a lot of interesting things (like hyphenation :-})

 - PassiveTeX. implements a lot more, but in patchy ways. cannot cope
with some variants of properties

 - RenderX engine. implements old XSL FO well, but is closed black box

 - whatever Arbortext have ready. I guess Norm could comment on the
state of that

Sebastian Rahtz