Curious ... XML to print, which applications do you all use?

[Allan Shearer]

Hi Everyone

I'm not looking to start a war here between Linux, Unix, Windows or Mac
users ... nor to do the same amongst users of major (or minor!) brand name
publishing applications ... but what I would like to know is:

- What software application/platform do YOU use to publish your XML to
print?

(assuming PDF is the end goal ... and, assuming that print is even the
destination for you at all - thus, those publishing to the web or other HTML
based destinations, you're off the hook - this time! <grin>).

To start the ball rolling ... I'll tell you that I'm working in a Windows
based-environment (WinXP) and am using Ventura Publisher to go to print. I
use XSLT to convert XML to Ventura-marked-up text files. Most everything I
do is 'long document', e.g., 100-1000s of pages with all the normal long
document stuff you'd expect (images, tables, index, TOC, etc....).

There! I'm out'a the closet! Now ... tell me about yourselves.

Curiously yours,

Allan Shearer

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----------------------------------
Allan Shearer
Shearer Publishing Systems
Brockville, Ontario
CANADA
allanATshearerDOTca
www.shearer.ca

 

[Joris Gillis]

Hi Everyone

I'm not looking to start a war here between Linux, Unix, Windows or Mac
users ... nor to do the same amongst users of major (or minor!) brand name
publishing applications ... but what I would like to know is:

- What software application/platform do YOU use to publish your XML to
print?

I'm a OpenOffice.org fan, I regularly use XSLT to convert my XML into the native XML format of OpenOffice.org
After the transformation, I can print it or use the PDF export function of the program.
OS: Windows 2000/NT

 

[Thomas Sommer]

I'm a OpenOffice.org fan, I regularly use XSLT to convert my XML into the

native XML format of OpenOffice.org After the transformation, I can print
it or use the PDF export function of the program. OS: Windows 2000/NT

What kind of stylesheet do you use?

Myself I use docbook, transfer it to latex and print from there.
OS: Linux

 

[Joris Gillis]

I'm a OpenOffice.org fan, I regularly use XSLT to convert my XML into the

What kind of stylesheet do you use?

My own flavour
(I'm using it right now to format Latin text extracts with commentaries)

 

[rumionfire]

I use Apache's Cocoon ( http://cocoon.apache.org/ ) . It is quite
stable and can handle large XML documents.

Here are some samples of on-the-fly XML -> PDF generation:
http://www.xml-dev.com/blog/#88
and
http://validate.sf.net


In Peace,
Saqib Ali

 

[Thomas Sommer]

Am Wed, 17 Nov 2004 16:01:18 +0000 schrieb Joris Gillis:

My own flavour
(I'm using it right now to format Latin text extracts with commentaries)

Do you have the direct link to the specs of openoffice xml or
is this intuitive when I just look at it?

Thanks

Thomas

 

[Joris Gillis]

My own flavour

Do you have the direct link to the specs of openoffice xml or
is this intuitive when I just look at it?

It is intuitive AND I'll give you some links
http://books.evc-cit.info/ch01.php is a good intro
http://xml.openoffice.org/xml_specification.pdf is a specification

regards,

 

[Thomas Sommer]

Thanks

 

[Andrew Tyson]

Allan Shearer wrote:

do is 'long document', e.g., 100-1000s of pages with all the normal long
document stuff you'd expect (images, tables, index, TOC, etc....).

<snip>

We use FOP ( http://xml.apache.org/fop ) to translate an XSL-FO document
to PDF. It has the nice feature of supporting embedded SVG based
graphics. You would just create an appropriate XSL-T to transform you
XML raw data to the XSL-FO marked up version. FOP is Java based so you
will need a JRE on the machine.

The nice thing about XSL-FO is that it is a W3C spec, so it's supported
by a number of vendors.

HTH,
AT

 

[Allan Shearer]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Very enlightening ... and MUCH more
responsive than the same question I'd asked in the microsoft
newsgroup.<sigh> I'm sure they're swell people as well ... but ... well,
no I won't go there. I'll just THANK you all for responding.

Just today I was reading about FrameMaker SGML and noticed (perhaps this is
old info?) that it cannot import XML, but can export it. Anyone know if
this is still the case?

Kinda the reverse of what Ventura does ... it can import it (for the purpose
of getting it to print) but cannot export it (which, if just fine by me).
Mind you, I would *like* it to export it ... "round-trip" would be nice.
Ok, ok ... that would be my cake AND eating it too, eh?!

I'm very much Windows based - but am still interested in what everyone is
doing. Java - well, that's cross-platform (or maybe better put,
'platform-independant') as well as the other Apaphe apps. Hmm ... all very
interesting. Brings me back a bit when I was working at a 'dot-com' and did
1/2 my work on Linux systems. Also did a lot of Java stuff at Espial. But
alas - on my own, I crawled back into my hole ... 'Windows'. But, I do
own a Mac ... and have an extra computer on hand should I ever dare to
load-up Linux again (and pretend I know my way around it when my wife peeks
over my shoulder!).

Thanks again for all your input. Keep it coming (for any/all others
interested in participating here). I hope to learn more and more about this
XML world. I admit it ... I've been 'bit' by the bug. W-a-y cool stuff.

Thanks

Yours,

Allan

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----------------------------------
Allan Shearer
Shearer Publishing Systems
Brockville, Ontario
CANADA
allanATshearerDOTca
www.shearer.ca