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Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Best Linux toolchain for SGML->PDF
Currently I am very happy with the SGML/XML -> PDF via jade/DSSSL toolchain. We (my company) don't really have any open issues. We are using the toolchain to produce release notes, user guides and, more recently, course notes (which are mainly being converted from MS word documents). However, you will need to apply patches to the basic tools to get them to this working point. The problem is that openjade and jadetex are interdependent. Jadetex expects openjade to be producing output consisting of various "macros". Changes in jadetex over the years have added macros - particularly in the support of double sided printing. The released 1.3 of openjade only really supports jadetex 2.7 (as does jade 1.2.x). You need openjade 1.3 (the released version) + a bunch of fixes from Francis J Lacoste (this fixes bugs and fits nicely with jadetex 2.20 - 3.3 ) + a small patch from me which ties openjade to the recent releases of jadetex ( 3.4 - 3.11) You want the latest DSSSL style sheets (>= 1.70 which have some key fixes for double sided printing and correct pagination of recto/verso pages) - more specifically, support OpenJade extensions required for correctly double sided printing). Of course, the latest version will do. You want the latest (3.11) version of jadetex because this simply has the least bugs. The recent versions of jadetex have better control of whitespace/layout, orphans/widows, tables + support for working two side printing (added in 3.4) + support for roman numerals in "front matter". However, the DSSSL stylesheets have some problems with deciding what is front matter and when the pages start esp. when you have a complex mix of "parts" etc. There isn't really a correct generic fix. The fix that murray was talking about works for the situation where your book consists of front matter, table of contents, preface, part I, chapter ...., Part II etc... It won't work if you decide to stick a preface before each part for example. This is why it isn't in the official stylesheets - because it isn't really a solution - just reduces the problem for the most common applications. You can find the BSD style sheet which contains this fix at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/doc/share/sgml/freebsd.dsl?rev=1.59&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup Search for "Castle"... I've submitted a patch for OpenJade against what was in CVS when I made the patch... this hasn't been applied, and in either case there has been no recent release of openjade. There needs to be - as openjade is being done a great disservice - when the released version contains so many flaws which have been fixed. So, in my opinion, the best Linux DocBook SGML -> PDF toolchain is mine ;-). Fortunately, Camille included the patches to openjade + jadetex 3.11 + DSSSL stylesheets 1.72 in Mandrake 8.1. So this has the best tool chain. If you have rpm2cpio on your debian system you can download the mandrake 8.1 RPM http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite.uio.no/pub/unix/Linux/Mandrake/8.1/SRPMS/openjade-1.3-15mdk.src.rpm And extract the source + the patches. The patches you want are openjade-1.3-features.patch.bz2 openjade-1.3-twosidestartonright.patch.bz2 [I can email these to you if you like - I don't want to bombard the list with them] The other patches are mainly to do with the RPM build enviroment, final file locations and some fixes for the 2.96 compiler. Further praise for Mandrake... I bought the 8.0 Boxed release and was pleased to see that the printed guide that comes with it was actually produced by openjade/jadetex - so they used a linux tool chain all the way through the production process (as this predated the roman numerals patch and a few others it looks a bit tatty..). This compares with Redhat 7.1 manuals (last version I looked at) which was authored in DocBook, produces the HTML with openjade - but used Arbor Adept/Epic (or whatever it is) running on Solaris for their printed manuals. I hope Mandrakesoft have carried on this process in 8.1 as it is a good example of the "Dog Food" principle.... I also looked at using htmldoc, but it is inferior to the results that you get with a "fixed" openjade/jadetex toolset. Hope that helps. Regards, Ian. Rick Bronson wrote: > > Murry, > > Thanks very much for your help. > > > On Sat, Oct 27, 2001 at 03:23:16PM -0700, Rick Bronson wrote: > > > 2. In the Table of Contents, the first <part> starts on page i, it > > > seems like it should start on page 1. The page's that contains the > > > <partinfo>'s don't have a page number. > > > > Ian Castle posted a solution to this problem several months ago. > > Check the archives. His patch worked great for me. > > I snooped around for the Ian Castle solution, I couldn't find the > patch on sourceforge. I tried the Mandrake Cooker, > ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake-devel/cooker/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/jadetex-3.11-1mdk.noarch.rpm > but wasn't able to get this to do much under debian. I downloaded the > CVS tree of "cvs -z3 checkout -r jade_1_1 jade" but it wouldn't > build. Could you tell me where I could get this "solution"? Or maybe > just a "recipe" for getting in sync to the latest and greatest openjade. > > Thanks much. > > Rick > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>
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