xmlroff-list

[xmlroff] xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21

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

Recent releases

   xmlroff 0.2.2, dated 2003-03-05

Changes in CVS

    - Added libtool library versioning to .so library file

    - Added pkg-config data file

    - Added libfo directory with header files and source code for
      simple and GObject-based interfaces to libfo

    - Added example xmlroff applications using new interfaces

    - Added FoMarkerParent type as half-step towards not failing on
      fo:marker elements

SourceForge site

   As of 2003-03-19, the xmlroff project had 3,226 page views and 442
   downloads and was ranked 2571 (which doesn't say much for the other
   55,674 projects on SourceForge).

   Corresponding statistics for PangoPDF are 910, 290, and 4664 (which
   really doesn't say much for the other 53,581 projects on
   SourceForge).

xml...@li...

   The list has 22 subscribers and has had about 50 messages to date.

   When posting to the list, please only quote the parts of the
   previous message to which you are directly replying or only quote
   enough to establish the context.  Including entire copies of
   previous messages reduces the signal-to-noise ratio in
   SourceForge's one-thread-per-page mailing list archives.

xmlroff Wiki

   I have recently added pages about debugging xmlroff, the fo:marker
   formatting object, and building xmlroff.

   I am currently the only contributor to the Wiki.  Does anybody read
   the Wiki?

Sun and xmlroff

   The xmlroff project was conceived by Sun as an open-source project.

   The full name of the project is "Sun xmlroff XSL Formatter".  Among
   other things, the name format allays concerns about 'xmlroff' being
   someone's trademark.

   While Sun remains the main contributor to xmlroff (and, to date, is
   the only contributor to xmlroff), there's really no reason to
   change the name.

   A by-product of xmlroff being open-source is that I am scheduled to
   taper off my involvement with xmlroff over the six months following
   its release: if xmlroff hasn't been picked up other developers
   within six months, Sun isn't going to prop it up.

   I will remain involved with xmlroff, however.  Besides minor
   involvement in my Sun capacity, I am also registered on SourceForge
   in my private capacity.

Future Work

   There are 'To Do' lists on the xmlroff Wiki and in the source code
   distribution.  Does anybody read them?

   I am currently working on the font embedding feature request by
   Noah Levitt.  That's turning into a revamp of the
   PangoPDFLIBFontMap type.  I intend to post my thoughts on changing
   that to the PangoPDF Wiki.

   The areas that I want to work on after that are:

    - Improving the top-level API to support, e.g., reading and
      writing from filehandles and buffers

    - The 'border' property and other border shorthands

    - fo:static-content

    - The FO and Area Tree browser idea.

   I will be in Australia for all of April, combining both work and
   vacation. (I am also passing through Japan.)  I will, of course, be
   working on xmlroff while I'm working, and I will, at least, monitor
   this mailing list at other times.


Regards,


Tony Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XML Technology Center - Dublin
Sun Microsystems Ireland Ltd                       Phone: +353 1 8199708
Hamilton House, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3            x(70)19708

Re: [xmlroff] xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21

[Noah L. <nl...@co...>]

Since you're doing me the honor of implementing my feature
request, I'll respond to your email. :-)

On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 17:24:35 +0000, Tony Graham wrote:
> 
> xmlroff Wiki
> 
>    I have recently added pages about debugging xmlroff, the fo:marker
>    formatting object, and building xmlroff.
> 
>    I am currently the only contributor to the Wiki.  Does anybody read
>    the Wiki?

A couple thoughts. One barrier to posting on the wiki is
that you have to feel extra sure you're not saying something
dumb. :) This can be a barrier to sending email to a mailing
list too, but less so, I think.

On the other hand, I think people might be more likely to
contribute if the wiki were _the_ xmlroff site, instead of
being something else that is linked to from the site. 

>    A by-product of xmlroff being open-source is that I am scheduled to
>    taper off my involvement with xmlroff over the six months following
>    its release: if xmlroff hasn't been picked up other developers
>    within six months, Sun isn't going to prop it up.

I think it's a pretty exciting and useful project, so I
don't expect it to die off. I'm not sure what you mean by
"release", though; could you clarify? Does that mean 1.0, or
is it something that has already happened? If it is in the
future, do you have an estimate of when it might mappen?

Noah

Re: [xmlroff] xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21

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

Noah Levitt wrote at 21 Mar 2003 14:46:29 -0500:
 > Since you're doing me the honor of implementing my feature
 > request, I'll respond to your email. :-)

You've shown that you've used the software.  Right now that's a good
enough reason to consider your feature requests.

 > On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 17:24:35 +0000, Tony Graham wrote:
 > >    I am currently the only contributor to the Wiki.  Does anybody read
 > >    the Wiki?
 > 
 > A couple thoughts. One barrier to posting on the wiki is
 > that you have to feel extra sure you're not saying something
 > dumb. :) This can be a barrier to sending email to a mailing
 > list too, but less so, I think.

I can see that.  I would welcome discussion on either the Wiki or the
mailing list or both.  Right now I'm just trying to work out what will
work best.

I'm happy to continue doing brain dumps to the Wiki, but I'd like to
know if people are reading them, hence the original question:  Does
anybody read the Wiki?

 > On the other hand, I think people might be more likely to
 > contribute if the wiki were _the_ xmlroff site, instead of
 > being something else that is linked to from the site. 

That is an interesting point.  I hadn't thought of that.

Some things like the conformance page would be had to represent in a
Wiki, but if the Wiki were the main site, it would be easy enough to
link to those pages from within the Wiki.  What do people think?

 > >    A by-product of xmlroff being open-source is that I am scheduled to
 > >    taper off my involvement with xmlroff over the six months following
 > >    its release: if xmlroff hasn't been picked up other developers
 > >    within six months, Sun isn't going to prop it up.
 > 
 > I think it's a pretty exciting and useful project, so I
 > don't expect it to die off. I'm not sure what you mean by
 > "release", though; could you clarify? Does that mean 1.0, or
 > is it something that has already happened? If it is in the
 > future, do you have an estimate of when it might mappen?

Released to public source.  The clock started ticking when the
availablility of the xmlroff code was announced in February.  Right
now I'm officially down to 80% working on xmlroff.

Regards,


Tony Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XML Technology Center - Dublin
Sun Microsystems Ireland Ltd                       Phone: +353 1 8199708
Hamilton House, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3            x(70)19708

Re: [xmlroff] xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21

[Tim W. <tw...@re...>]

On Sat, Mar 22, 2003 at 08:28:10AM +0000, Tony Graham wrote:

>  > >    A by-product of xmlroff being open-source is that I am scheduled =
to
>  > >    taper off my involvement with xmlroff over the six months followi=
ng
>  > >    its release: if xmlroff hasn't been picked up other developers
>  > >    within six months, Sun isn't going to prop it up.
>  >=20
>  > I think it's a pretty exciting and useful project, so I
>  > don't expect it to die off. I'm not sure what you mean by
>  > "release", though; could you clarify? Does that mean 1.0, or
>  > is it something that has already happened? If it is in the
>  > future, do you have an estimate of when it might mappen?
>=20
> Released to public source.  The clock started ticking when the
> availablility of the xmlroff code was announced in February.  Right
> now I'm officially down to 80% working on xmlroff.

I think that vendor packagers that would otherwise start looking at
code are probably put off right now by the fact that PangoPDF isn't
ported to gnome-print yet, and so can't be redistributed in a working
state in a commercial distribution as I understand it (IANAL). :-(

Tim.
*/

[xmlroff] gnome-print [Was: xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21]

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

Tim Waugh wrote at 22 Mar 2003 10:18:52 +0000:
 > I think that vendor packagers that would otherwise start looking at
 > code are probably put off right now by the fact that PangoPDF isn't
 > ported to gnome-print yet, and so can't be redistributed in a working
 > state in a commercial distribution as I understand it (IANAL). :-(

Owen Taylor conveyed similar reservations to me in December
w.r.t. Pango rather than commercial distribution.

FWIW, I have started.  In CVS, FoDoc is now an abstract type and
FoDocPDFLIB is a new child type.  I have also installed libgnomeprint
and looked at the example of tests/generate.c.

The next steps will depend on how much time I have to spend on it in
Australia.

Regards,


Tony Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XML Technology Center - Dublin
Sun Microsystems Ireland Ltd                       Phone: +353 1 8199708
Hamilton House, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3            x(70)19708

Re: [xmlroff] gnome-print [Was: xmlroff status -- 2003-03-21]

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

Tony Graham wrote at 26 Mar 2003 13:00:48 +0000:
 > Tim Waugh wrote at 22 Mar 2003 10:18:52 +0000:
 >  > I think that vendor packagers that would otherwise start looking at
 >  > code are probably put off right now by the fact that PangoPDF isn't
 >  > ported to gnome-print yet, and so can't be redistributed in a working
 >  > state in a commercial distribution as I understand it (IANAL). :-(
 > 
 > Owen Taylor conveyed similar reservations to me in December
 > w.r.t. Pango rather than commercial distribution.
 > 
 > FWIW, I have started.  In CVS, FoDoc is now an abstract type and
 > FoDocPDFLIB is a new child type.  I have also installed libgnomeprint
 > and looked at the example of tests/generate.c.
 > 
 > The next steps will depend on how much time I have to spend on it in
 > Australia.

Of course, any available help on this or any other aspect of xmlroff
would be appreciated.

Regards,


Tony Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XML Technology Center - Dublin
Sun Microsystems Ireland Ltd                       Phone: +353 1 8199708
Hamilton House, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3            x(70)19708