Re: [docbook-apps] Compile xsl with xalan

[=?UTF-8?Q?Remko_Tron=C3=A7on?= <remko@el-tramo.be>]

Hi,

> There are 2 steps to producing PDF from Docbook XML.

Right, and that's what I've been doing for years. However, my point
was that, although I didn't measure it yet, I expect a lot of the lost
time in processing to be due to the overhead of starting a java VM. If
I'm going to start the VM anyway, the time lost by using a complete
java-based toolchain is probably a lot smaller. It also removes some
overhead by only parsing your document once, and taking it through the
whole conversion chain without re-parsing (although parsing is quite
fast).

Another aspect is the usability: using a toolchain based on
command-line tools like xsltproc etc. may be acceptable for the people
who know their way around shells, make, ..., but it's not for 'normal'
people. Building an integrated toolchain based on shell tools in a
maintainable way is pretty hard on operating systems like Windows.
That's where the Java tools come in handy: you can easily build one
usable, cross-platform toolchain. I think that outweighs the
performance hit for most people.

Now, if there would be a good native FO to PDF alternative, this story
would change: you could build a complete native toolchain by linking
against these other processors.

cheers,
Remko