[xmlroff] What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?

[Tony G. <Ton...@Su...>]

I was thinking about what next to do for xmlroff, then I got to thinking of
asking you people what to do next for xmlroff, then I ended up deciding to ask
about the big picture for xmlroff.

I would define the purpose of the xmlroff project as:

   To develop an open source, conformant, multilingual XSL formatter capable
   of producing printable output from XML for most technical and business
   documents.

The project's principles are:

 - xmlroff should be free.

 - There's room in this world for more than one open source XSL formatter.

 - There's room in this world for open-source, free but not open, and
   commercial XSL formatters.

It's been a while since I've had this sort of conversation with myself, let
alone with anybody else, and I surprised myself by not mentioning C or GNOME.

Given the above, a successful outcome for the project would be:

   A multilingual XSL formatter with conformantly implements the formatting
   objects and properties necessary for formatting most technical and business
   documents.

Nobody is going to tell you that the current xmlroff represents that
successful outcome.

Opinions on the purpose, principles, outcome, etc., of the project are
welcome, but if the definition of a successul outcome is sufficiently accurate
for your purposes, my question is:

   What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?

To brainstorm for a moment, ideas that come to mind include:

 - Implement region-before, region-after, etc.

 - Implement markers

 - Provide RPMs as well as SRPMs and .tar.gz downloads

 - Provide a Windows port

 - Improve developer documentation

 - Improve end-user documentation

 - Rewrite in a more OO language

 - Rewrite in...

 - Sack the maintainer

 - Put the statement of purpose on the xmlroff web page

Any and all ideas are welcome at this point.  We can categorise and organise
the ideas later.

Regards,


Tony.