From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/3759 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Hans Hagen Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: context on demand / xml experiments / example styles / ... Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 17:48:50 +0100 Sender: owner-ntg-context@let.uu.nl Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20010109174850.0173c4c0@server-1> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035394477 19835 80.91.224.250 (23 Oct 2002 17:34:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 17:34:37 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: ntg-context@ntg.nl Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:3759 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.context:3759 Hi all, Last week we (that is, my collegue kees an me) have been setting up our dedicated web server. Today I moved the ade site there, and i hope that it went ok. Currently we run some experiments with the soon to be operational site of a pragma offspring branch. I slightly changed the look and feel of the pages and also added a toc [behind the first picture]. In 'links' you will find two new ones, these will bring you to the other pragma site. Because we can setup multiple sites there, we have also a third one, dedicated to some context activities. Later we will also set up a cvs server [specially for tobias -)]. Because the machine is reasonably well equipped [450 mhz with 256 k mem and some 20 Gig disk, connected by 100mb to a pretty fast backbone in the usa, we can do some nice experiments with on line publishing [we still are on isdn here, and it will take some time till adsl will reach this village, which is a pain -)]. I have now set up several publishing on demand example workflows there: 1 examns, generating tailor made examns from a 5000+ collection of items, selection takes place in a pdf file, so this is purely pdf based [the pdf docs involved are a nice example of what tex can do and they demonstrate that one can (mis) use form fields for selecting pages in a fancy way] We will use this database for other experiments as well. If your browser supports byte serving, you can run the selections local, else you should download the archives first. 2 books, typesetting gutenberg project books, more on that later 3 qrc's, you can generate the latest qrc docs; this is a prelude to the interface documentation project which some of you are involved in 4 travel forms, generating complicated pdf forms More (advanced) examples will follow, like beginners manuals in many languages [when ton has finished his updating, on which he's working right now, those who have offered to translate [de, cz, ...] can go ahead]. I'm also thinking of some mp related experiments (graphic paper things and so) or interactive examns. When updated, the pdftex manual makes a good candidate too. In these processes, users can set their preferences, like papersize, font size, colors, indentation and more, when generating docs. This means that instead of keeping many versions around [think of A4/letter * 10/11/12pt * 4 times whitespace * 4 times indent * 3 times color * n times other things = many versions] we now have none but users can have their personal preferences. [think of those who are still doomed to use letter instead of a4] The second experiment, books, is kind of special, since it will be a playground for context doing xml. The source code is xml, directly processed by context, but the styles will be tex based, and usable for other docs too. There will be multiple styles with many degrees of freedom, so that you can see what the consequences of layout parameters are. Here we can also play with protruding and hz. I want to make this books experiment (number 2) a 'context user' one, which means that, as soon as we have the basic dtd kind of stable and some more examples are converted from plain ascii to structered xml [this is not that hard, since a perl script does the bulk, a few are done as an example, while tobias is working on some german ones], we would like users to contribute more converted files. There are some 3000 public books out there in the gutenberg project, in multiple languages, so it would make a nice big testbed for (1) styles and (2) examples and (3) xml processing. Of course it needs some coordination, so if you want to contribute ... let us know! I can also imagine that we support the ebook dtd [which is html based, and therefore kind of crappy, but doable]. So, books will serve as sample style as well as xml site, but it's success depends on the extend that users are willing to help convert the txt files into xml ones. [i will do the styles, of which there is only a simple one now -)] Back to COD. The whole process of typesetting on demand is controlled by a perl script that acts on simple project env setup files, while texexec does the rest. Files are processed realtime in user dedicated space. This is work in progress and parts of the toolkit may migrate in the context distribution, although those of you who do this kind of things probably have your own scripts, in which case you may benefit from extended texexec functionality. There are several workflows possible, like pdf based, form based, either or not directly, or in stages, etc. Hans PS. In this context, there is a texexec feature that can be of use to some of you: texexec --path=/original/path/of/tex/file --pdf somefile.tex combined with (the --use key is new) --env=listofenvironments and --use=listofmodules will set up context in such a wat that it will run on the current path but pick up files from the path as given. [for this puspose a scratch file is made]. This means that one does not have to copy files. Files like somefile.xml are supported too, but the styles to handle that are not yet public, since they are not stabelized yet (i want the freedom to redo things in drastic ways). The basic xml handler will go into the distribution rather soon. H. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------