xmlroff-list — xmlroff XSL formatter discussion list

Re: [xmlroff] Errors with libfo

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

Hi,

Actually, I tried this and xmlroff segfaults. If you need a dump of
some sort I would be happy to oblige - just tell me what command to
run.

Thanks,
Noah

On 1/31/06, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...> wrote:
> Noah Slater <ns...@gm...> writes:
> > Trying to run xmlroff against a simple fo file results in lots of
> > errors and then aborts.
>
> If you run the FO file through libfo-compat.xsl you will get far fewer er=
ror
> messages.
>
> It looks like xmlroff will still fail, but it should be simpler to work o=
ut
> why after you've removed the unsupported properties.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Tony.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
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--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

Re: [xmlroff] Errors with libfo

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

Noah Slater <ns...@gm...> writes:
> Trying to run xmlroff against a simple fo file results in lots of
> errors and then aborts.

If you run the FO file through libfo-compat.xsl you will get far fewer error
messages.

It looks like xmlroff will still fail, but it should be simpler to work out
why after you've removed the unsupported properties.

Regards,


Tony.

Re: [xmlroff] make testing more accessible to contributors

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

Stefan Seefeld <se...@sy...> writes:
> When trying to confine a bug I tried to first see whether it was already
> covered by an existing test. Unfortunately, I found the existing test
> infrastructure a bit confusing / hard to use.

How about "idiosyncratic"?

> Is there anything that could be done to make that easier ? Ideally
> I would only need to have to check out an additional module (not two !)
> and then run 'make check' (or similar) in it.

The test definition and the test results documents conform to the DTD
developed for XSL FO tests for the tests done for the XSL 1.0 Candidate
Recommendation stage.

Multiple vendors and NIST contributed test suites to the XSL 1.0 CR testing.
Multiple vendors each ran multiple test suites and produced documents listing
how well their implementation faired with each test.

The 'testsuite' and 'testing' modules are separate so, in principle, the
'testing' module could be used with any testsuite and the 'testsuite' module
could be used by anyone who is set up to use XSL 1.0 CR testsuites.

The scripts and XSLT stylesheets in the 'testing' package do three things:

 - Generates the shell script that can run all the tests

 - Creates summary and individual HTML reports for the tests

 - Updates results data from the form in each individual test result page

Updating the results is clunky and requires that you regenerate all the HTML
to see the results reflected in the HTML, but it's a lot more convenient than
updating results by hand.

And, yes, it could be improved.

> I did glance over some READMEs both in 'testsuite' as well as 'testing',
> but couldn't quite get it to work.

Try 'make-success-report.sh'.

There isn't a Makefile target because, with the testsuite in a separate
directory and the test FO files never referred to in any way sensible to
'make', there's no way that 'make' could manage the dependencies and reliably
run the tests only when necessary.

Regards,


Tony.

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

[Chris B. <bow...@ho...>]

>  - What would it take for xmlroff to be your tool of choice for formatting
>    XML?

The most important thing for my company and their customers is Windows 
Support (Which I know you already have on your list). This is because whilst 
Linux accounts for a significant percentage of my customer's server 
installations, there are significanlty more using Windows. Some other 
features, which are also key for generating the majority of business 
documents:

- keep-* property support
- repeating table headers and footers
- collapsing table borders
- SVG support
- block containers
- support for reference orientation
- markers
- fo:list

Whilst xmlroff is currently a long way behind FOP in terms of feature 
support, xmlroff's main advantage over FOP is it's potentially a whole lot 
quicker being C based as opposed to Java.

Thanks for your efforts so far,

Chris

[xmlroff] Errors with libfo

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

Trying to run xmlroff against a simple fo file results in lots of
errors and then aborts.

I have included the original DocBook file, the FO file and the output
from xmlroff.

--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

[xmlroff] make testing more accessible to contributors

[Stefan S. <se...@sy...>]

When trying to confine a bug I tried to first see whether it was already
covered by an existing test. Unfortunately, I found the existing test
infrastructure a bit confusing / hard to use.

Is there anything that could be done to make that easier ? Ideally
I would only need to have to check out an additional module (not two !)
and then run 'make check' (or similar) in it.
I did glance over some READMEs both in 'testsuite' as well as 'testing',
but couldn't quite get it to work.

Thanks,
		Stefan

Re: [xmlroff] error with libpango

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=3D/usr/local/lib
$ make clean && make && make install

Worked a treat. Thanks so much.

On 1/30/06, Stefan Seefeld <se...@sy...> wrote:
> Noah Slater wrote:
>
> > That is strange, I installed pangoxsl-1.6.0.1 from source forge like
> > the configure script asked - but that doesn't seem to have done the
> > trick - yet the xmlroff configure script seemed happy after I had done
> > that.
>
> Chances are that your libpangoxsl library ended up in /usr/local/lib,
> but that you forgot to add that path to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.
> (The latter is used as a search path by the dynamic loader, i.e. ld.so)
>
> HTH,
>                 Stefan
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
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--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

Re: [xmlroff] error with libpango

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

Noah Slater <ns...@gm...> writes:
> I have just successfully compiled and installed xmlroff with no
> problems, however when I run it from the command line I get the
> following error:
>
> xmlroff: error while loading shared libraries: libpangoxsl-1.0.so.0:
> cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
>
> Is there something I am missing?

LD_LIBRARY_PATH?

You may need to set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to include
/usr/local/lib (or wherever else PangoXSL is installed).

Regards,


Tony.

Re: [xmlroff] error with libpango

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

'ldd `which xmlroff`

=09libpangoxsl-1.0.so.0 =3D> not found
=09libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0 (0x0ffb9000)
=09libfontconfig.so.1 =3D> /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x0ff60000)
=09libpango-1.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0 (0x0ff00000)
=09libz.so.1 =3D> /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x0fecb000)
=09libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 (0x0fe91000)
=09libm.so.6 =3D> /lib/tls/libm.so.6 (0x0fdfb000)
=09libgobject-2.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0x0fd94000)
=09libgmodule-2.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0x0fd70000)
=09libdl.so.2 =3D> /lib/tls/libdl.so.2 (0x0fd4c000)
=09libglib-2.0.so.0 =3D> /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0x0fc8d000)
=09libc.so.6 =3D> /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x0fb2c000)
=09libfreetype.so.6 =3D> /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x0fa96000)
=09libexpat.so.1 =3D> /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1 (0x0fa50000)
=09/lib/ld.so.1 (0xf7fe7000)

That is strange, I installed pangoxsl-1.6.0.1 from source forge like
the configure script asked - but that doesn't seem to have done the
trick - yet the xmlroff configure script seemed happy after I had done
that.

--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

Re: [xmlroff] error with libpango

[Stefan S. <se...@sy...>]

Noah Slater wrote:

> That is strange, I installed pangoxsl-1.6.0.1 from source forge like
> the configure script asked - but that doesn't seem to have done the
> trick - yet the xmlroff configure script seemed happy after I had done
> that.

Chances are that your libpangoxsl library ended up in /usr/local/lib,
but that you forgot to add that path to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.
(The latter is used as a search path by the dynamic loader, i.e. ld.so)

HTH,
		Stefan

Re: [xmlroff] error with libpango

[Stefan S. <se...@sy...>]

Noah Slater wrote:

> xmlroff: error while loading shared libraries: libpangoxsl-1.0.so.0:
> cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

That sounds like some libtool problem. What does 'ldd `which xmlroff`' tell
about what libpangoxsl library is linked in ? Then, what does 'file' tell you
when called with the full filename of the libpangoxsl library ?

Regards,
		Stefan

[xmlroff] error with libpango

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

Hello,

I have just successfully compiled and installed xmlroff with no
problems, however when I run it from the command line I get the
following error:

xmlroff: error while loading shared libraries: libpangoxsl-1.0.so.0:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Is there something I am missing?

Thanks,
Noah

--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

Re: [xmlroff] libfo basic interface [Was: What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?]

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

2006/1/30, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...>:
> Aron Stansvik <elv...@gm...> writes:
> > 2006/1/30, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...>:
> ...
> >>  - What would it take for xmlroff to be your tool of choice for format=
ting
> >>    XML?
> >
> > See above. And also, more for personal use, the support of SVG and a
> > nice API so that I can exploit the power of xmlroff in my own little
> > stupid applications.
>
> Have you looked at libfo/fo-libfo-basic.h?
>
> No GObjects in sight.
>
> It's even mostly documented in the xmlroff manual and has an example
> 'xmlroff-basic.c' program in the 'libfo-examples' package.

Ah. I don't have a need this very moment to call xmlroff, it was a
feature-wish for a hypothetical need, not an urgent one ;) Now I know
it's there, good to know.

Aron

>
> Regards,
>
>
> Tony.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log fi=
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xmlroff-list
>

[xmlroff] libfo basic interface [Was: What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?]

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

Aron Stansvik <elv...@gm...> writes:
> 2006/1/30, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...>:
...
>>  - What would it take for xmlroff to be your tool of choice for formatting
>>    XML?
>
> See above. And also, more for personal use, the support of SVG and a
> nice API so that I can exploit the power of xmlroff in my own little
> stupid applications.

Have you looked at libfo/fo-libfo-basic.h?

No GObjects in sight.

It's even mostly documented in the xmlroff manual and has an example
'xmlroff-basic.c' program in the 'libfo-examples' package.

Regards,


Tony.

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

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

> See above. And also, more for personal use, the support of SVG and a
> nice API so that I can exploit the power of xmlroff in my own little
> stupid applications.

Seconded, big time. SWIG Python binding would be frickin' fantastic.
Right now there are no Python bindings for FO processing at all that I
know of - this would be major.

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

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

2006/1/30, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...>:
> Tony Graham <Ton...@Su...> writes:
> ...
> >    What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?
>
>  - Rewrite in D

That was just me thinking out loud because I was browsing the D
website when your e-mail arrived ;)

>  - Lose the reliance on GLib/GObject

I can second that, but only because of personal preference, not
technical merits of GLib/GObject. I just find it a pretty hard and
verbose system :)

>  - Get rid of PangoXSL

That would be really nice too. Don't know what the state of
Cairo/Pango integration is at the moment.

>  - Sack the maintainer

Nooo :)

>  - Be the best DocBook formatter on the planet

Absolutely!

>  - What would it take for xmlroff to become the first thing you load onto=
 your
>    computer after the OS?

For xmlroff to become a darn good init(1) replacement? ;)

>  - What would it take for you to junk your current word processor or
>    formatting system in favour of XSL-FO and xmlroff?

My dad runs a very small publishing company, for which I do some work
from time to time. The project at the moment is a translation from
english to swedish of one of his titles, to be published in early
2007.

There's a pretty well-established way of producing the books here, and
my dad has this guy that he always contracts for cover material and
typesetting, however I have been able push some change into the
company in the past; switching their old NetWare servers over to
Linux, and their commercial firewall to OpenBSD. Maybe in the future
they'd be willing to try producing a book with DocBook or TEI and
XSL-FO.

For that, xmlroff needs to have good font support for True-/OpenType
fonts, and do a good job of automatic hyphenation, maybe using TeX
hyphenation patterns. It also needs to be able to read TIFF graphic
files with embedded ICC color profiles and embed them correctly into
the PDF.

This is just a few thoughts on what would make xmlroff a killer app for me =
:)

>
>  - What would it take for xmlroff to be your tool of choice for formattin=
g
>    XML?

See above. And also, more for personal use, the support of SVG and a
nice API so that I can exploit the power of xmlroff in my own little
stupid applications.

Best regards,
Aron

>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log fi=
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> for problems?  Stop!  Download the new AJAX search engine that makes
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> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=3Dlnk&kid=3D103432&bid=3D230486&dat=
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xmlroff-list
>

[xmlroff] [ xmlroff-Bugs-1418546 ] Support external graphcics (such as png) with alpha channel.

[SourceForge.net <no...@so...>]

Bugs item #1418546, was opened at 2006-01-30 06:58
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by Item Submitter
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=536897&aid=1418546&group_id=73148

Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
including the initial issue submission, for this request,
not just the latest update.
Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Stefan Seefeld (stefan)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Support external graphcics (such as png) with alpha channel.

Initial Comment:
Right now xmlroff prints nothing in the region where the
graphic is supposed to appear. When I modify the image
by removing the alpha channel it works better (there
appear to be other issues, but that's for a different
bug report).

If supporting alpha channels is hard, it might be a
worthwhile first step to just ignore the alpha values,
i.e. print the image as if it was plain.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can respond by visiting: 
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Re: [xmlroff] What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?

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

Tony Graham <Ton...@Su...> writes:
...
>    What needs to be done to make xmlroff a success?

Taking some liberties with the posts from the last few days (and happily
listing contradictory ideas at this stage), this is the current list of ideas
for making xmlroff a success:

 - Implement...

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

 - Implement markers

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

 - Provide a Windows port

 - Provide a Debian port

 - Provide a Solaris port

 - Improve developer documentation

 - Improve end-user documentation

 - Rewrite in a more OO language

 - Rewrite in...

 - Rewrite in D

 - Rewrite in C++

 - Keep it in C

 - Lose the reliance on GLib/GObject

 - Get rid of PangoXSL

 - Sack the maintainer

 - Put the statement of purpose on the xmlroff web page

 - Counteract outdated negative perceptions from when xmlroff used PDFlib

 - Be the best DocBook formatter on the planet

 - Support more graphics formats

 - Produce output in...

 - Produce output in SVG

 - Integrate with editors

 - Provide one-click formatting from within an editor

I'm just looking for ideas at this point.

 - What would it take for xmlroff to become the first thing you load onto your
   computer after the OS?

 - What would it take for you to junk your current word processor or
   formatting system in favour of XSL-FO and xmlroff?

 - What would it take for xmlroff to be your tool of choice for formatting
   XML?

Regards,


Tony.

Re: [xmlroff] external graphics feature request

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

Stefan Seefeld <se...@sy...> writes:
> I notice that xmlroff can't handle external svg files. What is missing
> to support them ? Also, xmlroff prints an error message for png images

The simple answer is that xmlroff with support SVG either when libgnomeprint
supports SVG or someone writes a Cairo backend for xmlroff.

> with alpha channel. What needs to be done to make that work ?

I'll look into it.  Please file a bug.

Regards,


Tony.

Re: [xmlroff] Debian xmlroff package

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

Are there any Debian users on the list willing to make an ITP (Intent
To Package) for this software and ultimately becoming the downstream
maintainer of the package?

Thanks,
Noah

On 1/30/06, Tony Graham <Ton...@su...> wrote:
> Noah Slater <ns...@gm...> writes:
> > I have been reading about xmlroff with great interest. Everywhere I
> > looked seemed to state that xmlroff relied on non free libraries and
> > hence i discounted it original as I am not prepared to tolerate this.
>
> That hasn't been the case for quite a while.
>
> Looks like I need to make that more obvious.
>
> > However, it is with great excitement that I read this is no longer the
> > case. All that remains to be asked is if or when this great piece of
> > software will appear packaged in Debian's repositories?
>
> I don't know.  I personally don't use Debian, so I would have to rely on
> someone else to package it.
>
> If it were available, we could point to it from the "Ports" page at
> http://xmlroff.org/ports.html.
>
> > Thanks so much!
>
> np.  It's always a pleasure when people are enthusiastic about xmlroff.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Tony.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log fi=
les
> for problems?  Stop!  Download the new AJAX search engine that makes
> searching your log files as easy as surfing the  web.  DOWNLOAD SPLUNK!
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>


--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

Re: [xmlroff] Debian xmlroff package

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

Noah Slater <ns...@gm...> writes:
> I have been reading about xmlroff with great interest. Everywhere I
> looked seemed to state that xmlroff relied on non free libraries and
> hence i discounted it original as I am not prepared to tolerate this.

That hasn't been the case for quite a while.

Looks like I need to make that more obvious.

> However, it is with great excitement that I read this is no longer the
> case. All that remains to be asked is if or when this great piece of
> software will appear packaged in Debian's repositories?

I don't know.  I personally don't use Debian, so I would have to rely on
someone else to package it.

If it were available, we could point to it from the "Ports" page at
http://xmlroff.org/ports.html.

> Thanks so much!

np.  It's always a pleasure when people are enthusiastic about xmlroff.

Regards,


Tony.

[xmlroff] Debian xmlroff package

[Noah S. <ns...@gm...>]

Hello,

I have been reading about xmlroff with great interest. Everywhere I
looked seemed to state that xmlroff relied on non free libraries and
hence i discounted it original as I am not prepared to tolerate this.

However, it is with great excitement that I read this is no longer the
case. All that remains to be asked is if or when this great piece of
software will appear packaged in Debian's repositories?

Thanks so much!

Noah

p.s. sorry Tony for sending this three times now, only just discovered
this list :)

--
"Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so
far as society is free to use the results." - R. Stallman

[xmlroff] external graphics feature request

[Stefan S. <se...@sy...>]

I notice that xmlroff can't handle external svg files. What is missing
to support them ? Also, xmlroff prints an error message for png images
with alpha channel. What needs to be done to make that work ?

Thanks,
		Stefan

[xmlroff] [ xmlroff-Bugs-1417571 ] background-color doesn't work

[SourceForge.net <no...@so...>]

Bugs item #1417571, was opened at 2006-01-28 15:14
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by Item Submitter
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=536897&aid=1417571&group_id=73148

Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
including the initial issue submission, for this request,
not just the latest update.
Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Stefan Seefeld (stefan)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: background-color doesn't work

Initial Comment:
I'm transforming a simple docbook document using the
docbook xsl (fo) stylesheets. I'm using the 
'shade.verbatim.style', which translates (among others)
into a 'background-color' attribute.

When that attribute is set, xmlroff generates this
error message:

(process:7850): GnomePrint-CRITICAL **: file
gnome-print-stdapi.c: line 908 (gnome_print_glyphlist):
assertion `gp_gc_has_currentpoint (pc->gc)' failed

and the generated pdf contains a gray region (as 
expected), but it doesn't display any text in it.

Manually editing the fo document, removing just the
background-color attribute, will make the above error
message disappear, and the text reappear (without the
gray background, obviously).



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

[Stefan S. <se...@sy...>]

Tony Graham wrote:

> 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.

Heh ! :-)

> 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

I'm not qualified to comment on these two items, as I'm 'only' a user.
However, I think a good measure for success and adoptation in the FOSS
community is xmlroff's ability to process docbook into pdf (i.e. notably
the fo generated by Norm Walsh's xsl stylesheets).

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

These are pure convenience. As soon as you have a tarball and a simple
build system that conforms to current standard practice, people will be
able to write packagers (e.g. rpm spec files).

>  - Provide a Windows port

That would be nice.

>  - Improve developer documentation

That would be nice, too, though I'm not sure in what sense it is lacking.
You already seem to have good embedded API documentation. Is that already
extracted and processed into an (online) reference manual ?

>  - Improve end-user documentation

I'm not sure what is lacking here, either. The most important information
for users, at this time, is the conformance matrix that informs potential
users about the current status.

>  - Rewrite in a more OO language

I'm not sure that would be such a good idea, at least not if by 'rewrite'
you mean 'start over from scratch'. Migrating would be a different matter...

Being a C++ developer myself, I would of course replace the GObject-based
type system by a true compiler-supported type system. :-)
But I'm not sure how practical that is, and whether there is really any
gain at this point. (It would be wonderful if xmlroff could become
GNOME-independent, though I doubt this is possible due to its dependence
on pango, right ?)

Regards,
		Stefan