reportlab and python 3

[Laszlo Nagy]

Reportlab is on the wall of shame. http://python3wos.appspot.com/

Is there other ways to create PDF files from python 3? There is pyPdf. I
haven't tried it yet, but it seem that it is a low level library. It
does not handle "flowables" that are automatically split across pages.
It does not handle "table headers" that are repeated automatically on
the top of every page (when the table does not fit on a page). I need a
higher level API, with features compareable to reportlab. Is there such
thing?

Thanks,

Laszlo

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le lundi 17 septembre 2012 10:48:30 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

Reportlab is on the wall of shame. http://python3wos.appspot.com/



Is there other ways to create PDF files from python 3? There is pyPdf. I

haven't tried it yet, but it seem that it is a low level library. It

does not handle "flowables" that are automatically split across pages.

It does not handle "table headers" that are repeated automatically on

the top of every page (when the table does not fit on a page). I need a

higher level API, with features compareable to reportlab. Is there such

thing?



Thanks,



Laszlo

A big yes and it is very easy. I assume you know how
to write a plain text file with Python .

Use your Python to generate a .tex file and let it compile
with one of the pdf TeX engines.

Potential problems:
- It requires a TeX installation (a no problem).
- Of course I requires some TeX knowledge. Learning it
is not so complicate. Learn how to use TeX with a text
editor and you will quickly understand what you have to
program in Python. Bonus: you learn at the same time
a good text editing engine.

I can not figure out something more simple, versatile and
powerful.

jmf

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le lundi 17 septembre 2012 10:48:30 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

Reportlab is on the wall of shame. http://python3wos.appspot.com/



Is there other ways to create PDF files from python 3? There is pyPdf. I

haven't tried it yet, but it seem that it is a low level library. It

does not handle "flowables" that are automatically split across pages.

It does not handle "table headers" that are repeated automatically on

the top of every page (when the table does not fit on a page). I need a

higher level API, with features compareable to reportlab. Is there such

thing?



Thanks,



Laszlo

A big yes and it is very easy. I assume you know how
to write a plain text file with Python .

Use your Python to generate a .tex file and let it compile
with one of the pdf TeX engines.

Potential problems:
- It requires a TeX installation (a no problem).
- Of course I requires some TeX knowledge. Learning it
is not so complicate. Learn how to use TeX with a text
editor and you will quickly understand what you have to
program in Python. Bonus: you learn at the same time
a good text editing engine.

I can not figure out something more simple, versatile and
powerful.

jmf

 

[Laszlo Nagy]

A big yes and it is very easy. I assume you know how
to write a plain text file with Python .

Use your Python to generate a .tex file and let it compile
with one of the pdf TeX engines.

Potential problems:
- It requires a TeX installation (a no problem).
- Of course I requires some TeX knowledge. Learning it
is not so complicate. Learn how to use TeX with a text
editor and you will quickly understand what you have to
program in Python. Bonus: you learn at the same time
a good text editing engine.

I can not figure out something more simple, versatile and
powerful.

jmf

This is a good idea. Thank you. I wanted to learn TeX anyway. The TeX
installation is problematic. I also want to use this under MS Windows.
Yes, I know here is MikTeX for Windows. But there is significant
difference. ReportLab can be embedded into a small program created with
py2exe. LaTeX on the other side is a 150MB separate installation package
that must be installed separately by hand.

But in my particular case, it is still a good solution.

Thanks,

Laszlo

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le mardi 18 septembre 2012 11:04:19 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

This is a good idea. Thank you. I wanted to learn TeX anyway. The TeX

installation is problematic. I also want to use this under MS Windows.

Yes, I know here is MikTeX for Windows. But there is significant

difference. ReportLab can be embedded into a small program created with

py2exe. LaTeX on the other side is a 150MB separate installation package

that must be installed separately by hand.



But in my particular case, it is still a good solution.



Thanks,



Laszlo

I understood, you have Python on a platform and starting
from this you wish to create pdf files.
Obviously, embedding "TeX" is practically a no solution,
although distibuting a portable standalone TeX distribution
is a perfectly viable solution, especially on Windows!

To "I wanted to learn TeX anyway.":
I can only warmly recommend to start with one of the two
unicode compliant engines, LuaTeX or XeTeX.

jmf

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le mardi 18 septembre 2012 11:04:19 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

This is a good idea. Thank you. I wanted to learn TeX anyway. The TeX

installation is problematic. I also want to use this under MS Windows.

Yes, I know here is MikTeX for Windows. But there is significant

difference. ReportLab can be embedded into a small program created with

py2exe. LaTeX on the other side is a 150MB separate installation package

that must be installed separately by hand.



But in my particular case, it is still a good solution.



Thanks,



Laszlo

I understood, you have Python on a platform and starting
from this you wish to create pdf files.
Obviously, embedding "TeX" is practically a no solution,
although distibuting a portable standalone TeX distribution
is a perfectly viable solution, especially on Windows!

To "I wanted to learn TeX anyway.":
I can only warmly recommend to start with one of the two
unicode compliant engines, LuaTeX or XeTeX.

jmf

 

[Laszlo Nagy]

I understood, you have Python on a platform and starting
from this you wish to create pdf files.
Obviously, embedding "TeX" is practically a no solution,
although distibuting a portable standalone TeX distribution
is a perfectly viable solution, especially on Windows!

To "I wanted to learn TeX anyway.":
I can only warmly recommend to start with one of the two
unicode compliant engines, LuaTeX or XeTeX.

All right. Which one is the better? I'm totally a beginner. I would
also like to use mathematical expressions but I guess they are both
capable of that. Another requirement would be: easy installation under
unix and windows, good multilingual support.

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le mardi 18 septembre 2012 15:31:52 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

All right. Which one is the better? I'm totally a beginner. I would

also like to use mathematical expressions but I guess they are both

capable of that. Another requirement would be: easy installation under

unix and windows, good multilingual support.

I basically recommend nothing. I pointed the LuaTeX or
Xe(La)TeX engines because there are the unicode compliant
engines. Today, most of the work target these engines.

By Unicode compliance, you should not understand only
the coding of characters, but everything which is related
to the unicode technology (characters, unicode features,
typography, font technology).

"...good multilingual support. ..."
Don't worry. It's much better than the future of Python ;-)

FYI I'm not a expert. I have only accumulated experience, I wrote
my first TeX document 20(?) years ago. Now, I use XeLaTeX from
MiKTeX on Win7. Why? Answer: why not?

jmf

 

[wxjmfauth]

Le mardi 18 septembre 2012 15:31:52 UTC+2, Laszlo Nagy a écrit :

All right. Which one is the better? I'm totally a beginner. I would

also like to use mathematical expressions but I guess they are both

capable of that. Another requirement would be: easy installation under

unix and windows, good multilingual support.

I basically recommend nothing. I pointed the LuaTeX or
Xe(La)TeX engines because there are the unicode compliant
engines. Today, most of the work target these engines.

By Unicode compliance, you should not understand only
the coding of characters, but everything which is related
to the unicode technology (characters, unicode features,
typography, font technology).

"...good multilingual support. ..."
Don't worry. It's much better than the future of Python ;-)

FYI I'm not a expert. I have only accumulated experience, I wrote
my first TeX document 20(?) years ago. Now, I use XeLaTeX from
MiKTeX on Win7. Why? Answer: why not?

jmf

 

[Terry Reedy]

capable of that. Another requirement would be: easy installation under
unix and windows, good multilingual support.

By using 3.3, your Python string manipulations will act the same on all
platforms, even when using extended plane (non-BMP) characters.