Re: [xep-support] A3 pages and Landscape Pages

From: Douglas_Morrison@contractor.amat.com
Date: Tue Jun 15 2004 - 08:46:08 PDT

  • Next message: Bob Stayton: "Re: [xep-support] A3 pages and Landscape Pages"

    Ken,

    Thanks very much for that reply - it has helped to clarify the issues
    involved.

    I agree that there is a problem knowing what to do with various attributes
    on the blocks. In the case of Docbook xsl (from Norman Walsh) the only
    attribute on the block element is the id attribute. I am not quite sure
    what use is made of it, but for my application I don't think it would
    matter of the block was removed. In the xsl exported by Arbortext Styler I
    am not sure what the full range of attributes could be, but none that I
    have seen are essential for my purposes (as far as I know).

    If I remove the blocks, the output form the xslt will be something like:

    <fo:page-sequence
        <fo:flow
            A
            <fo:page-sequence
                <fo:flow
                    B
                </fo:flow
            </fo:page-sequence
            C
        </fo:flow
    </fo:page-sequence

    What I was suggesting was that the W3 standard ought to allow such
    nesting. It would then be up to XEP to extract three parts to make three
    sibling page concepts. So it would then not be an xslt problem, but the
    far preferable "someone else's problem"!

    However there would still be issues with some page-sequence attributes (eg
    force-page-count) that would need to be addressed. XEP could also handle
    nesting within fo:blocks provided the interpretation of attributes were
    consistent with user requirements - which may or may not be a problem.

    To be really general, the transitions to different page geometries should
    not have to be symmetrically placed in the source xml. Modifying your
    example, the source could be

       <block
         A
         <block
            B
            <block
              C
              <?switchpage master-reference="A3Landscape"/>
              <block
                X
              </block
              <block
                Y
              </block
              <block
                Z
              </block
              D
            </block
            E
         </block
         <?switchpage master-reference="A4Portrait"/>
         F
       </block

    Furthermore, the actual transition could even be mid-block. An attribute
    of the switchpage pi could say "carry on writing to the current page, but
    when that is full, change to the new pageset and continue writing into
    that". I anticipate that there could be implementation problems, and there
    may be other strong objections.

    As it may be some time before W3 and XEP allow such nesting, I think my
    best way forward may well be to remove the unecessary blocks and emit a
    psmi:page-sequence and use your ingenious solution. The output from the
    first xslt pass would then be something like:

    <fo:page-sequence
        <fo:flow
            A
            <psmi:page-sequence master-reference="A3Landscape"/>
             B
            <psmi:page-sequence master-reference="A4Portrait"/>
            C
        </fo:flow
    </fo:page-sequence

    And then the above would be transformed using your wonderful psmi.xsl.

    Regards, Doug x2571

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    "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>
    Sent by: owner-xep-support@renderx.com
    11/06/2004 17:11
    Please respond to xep-support
     
            To: xep-support@renderx.com
            cc:
            Subject: Re: [xep-support] A3 pages and Landscape Pages
     

    At 2004-06-11 15:15 +0100, Douglas_Morrison@contractor.amat.com wrote:
    >Thanks very much for that suggestion. One problem for me is the
    >requirement to insert the psmi marker as a direct child of fo:flow. The
    >xsl I am using could put in several nested fo:blocks before reaching the
    >element that requires the change in page geometry. I'm not sure how to
    get
    >round that.
    >
    >It seems to me the best solution would be to allow nested pagesets and
    >process them accordingly. Why not?

    Consider the situation where one has nested blocks and the need for a
    page:

       <block
         A
         <block
            B
            <block
              C
              <page
                <block
                  X
                </block
                <block
                  Y
                </block
                <block
                  Z
                </block
              </page
              D
            </block
            E
         </block
         F
       </block

    In the object hierarchy, "D", "E" and "F" have the same properties as "A",

    "B", and "C". Would that imply the same kinds of blocks in the
    newly-created page sequence? If so, what happens to those properties of
    the blocks that apply at the start of the block (initial property set,
    space-before, etc.)? Padding? backgrounds?

    And if that were all determined, what would the XSLT be to extract the
    three parts above into three sibling page concepts ... the recursive-call
    requirements are, I believe, doable but very awkward and not easily
    generalizable.

    I've assessed that "process them accordingly" is untenable and messy in
    the
    general case .... I'd be interested to hear proposals for general
    solutions
    to such situations.

    ..................... Ken

    --
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    Crane Softwrights Ltd.          http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/f/
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