[xmlroff] xmlroff 0.4.0 progress report [Was: Features required for xmlroff 0.4.0?]

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

Tony Graham <Ton...@Su...> writes:
> As you know, in a moment of great optimism, I changed the xmlroff description
> to:
>
>    xmlroff is a fast, free, high-quality, multi-platform XSL formatter that
>    aims to excel at DocBook formatting and that integrates easily with other
>    programs and with scripting languages.
>
> We now need to deliver on that statement, and we should do so for xmlroff
> 0.4.0.

The NEWS entry for xmlroff 0.4.0 is currently:

Changes between 0.3.9 and 0.4.0

* Added '--compat' option for running compatibility stylesheet
* Added experimental Cairo backend
* Added '-w' option for setting warning mode
* Added handling empty fo:wrapper
* Simplified creating FoXmlDoc and running XSLT transformations
* Removed support for SGML catalogs

> Looking at each part of that statement in turn:
>
>  - fast

No change.

>  - free

No change.

>  - high-quality

Fixed a longstanding bug w.r.t. empty <fo:wrapper/>.

>  - multi-platform

No change.

>  - XSL formatter

Started on improving whitespace handling and 'white-space-treatment', etc.,
properties, but still unfinished.

>  - that aims to excel at DocBook formatting
>
>    Stefan's idea of including libfo-compat.xsl in xmlroff fits in here, since
>    you would then not need an additional step when processing DocBook files.

Done.

The turning off of warnings about unsupported properties will also mean
less-worried users.

>    The man pages in DocBook markup idea would also fit in here.

Oliver?

>  - integrates easily with other programs
>
>    I have been working on reducing the references to third-party libraries in
>    libfo headers.

Done.

>    Stefans idea of bundling PangoXSL with xmlroff fits in here since, as Mauro
>    also noted recently, it would save downloading and installing another
>    package just to use xmlroff.

Started it on the train today.

>  - and with scripting languages
>
>    Mauro and I have been discussing API changes (and anyone else can chime
>    in).

The changes to FoXmlDoc should make it easier.

>    There has been no action on creating a SWIG interface.  (I did download
>    SWIG, but that hardly counts as action.)

No change.

> There's a bunch of other stuff that needs to be done just because this is
> 0.4.0 instead of 0.3.x, including:
>
>  - Update the libfo-examples module to work with libfo-0.4.

Not done.

>    I would also like to update the GTK+ examples to use real tree widgets
>    instead of the current shortcut of creating text representations of trees.
>    Any takers?

Not done.

> What else needs to be done for xmlroff 0.4.0?

Even without a Windows build, it looks like xmlroff 0.4.0 would be more
"about" than "on" 1st May.

Regards,


Tony.