[xmlroff] Using libfo in a Scribus XSL-FO import plugin?

[Elvis S. <elv...@gm...>]

Hello xmlroff-people,

Recently on the #scribus IRC channel, someone expressed an interest in
creating an XSL-FO import plugin for Scribus [1]. This would be a
"real" import plugin, and not just something that renders a PDF and
imports that. I knew about libfo from xmlroff since before, and
figured it might be of some use in creating such an import plugin, and
I offered my help in the investigation of this, and also in the
possible development of the plugin. So I have a few quite general
questions about this endeavor :)

What are your thoughts as xmlroff developers (Tony?) on the
feasibility of using libfo in an XSL-FO import plugin? Do you think
that having access to the internal area tree using libfo will help in
leveraging some of the formatting capabilities of xmlroff during
import into Scribus?

I have a general knowledge about the formatting process of an XSL-FO
formatter, and I know how formatting objects are broken up (or smashed
together?) into areas and traits in an area tree. But I'm not quite
sure what information is contained in this area tree, how much of it
is accessible using the libfo API, or if it will be of any help in
laying out pages, texts, images and tables in a Scribus document.

I've taken a brief look at the gmodule-area-tree.c example from
libfo-examples, but I'd love to have some input from knowledgeable
xmlroff folks on the capabilities of libfo when it comes to retrieving
layout information such as positioning, padding, font information
et.c.

This may be a very hard task, but that's why I found it interesting
and volunteered to help, to the best of my abilities :)

If you're not familiar with Scribus, it's a desktop publishing
application. More details at http://www.scribus.net/.

Thanks for your time everyone, and thanks to you Tony for still
developing xmlroff.

Regards,
Elvis Stansvik