a new tool

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Hi, 

I uploaded a new beta which has a couple of new features. One is
'overlays', which is build on top of the noemal layering mechsnism. This
mechanism permits the placement of anything anywhere (also on specific
pages), if needed relative or absolute to the current position, at any
layer or in any background you want. This means that (when i get the specs
sorted out) one can have transpancy and so, but more important is that one
can move data below or on top of running texts; there are quite some
alignment options, and i think that dtp lovers will like it. This feature
will be documented in next version of the metafun manual (draft is ready). 

The other tool concerns figure bases. Imagine that you have a file like: 

<figurelibrary language="nl"> 

  <description>
    <organization>PRAGMA Advanced Document Engineering</organization>
    <project>Manuals</project>
    <product>Beginners Manual</product>
    <comment>A bunch of figures.</comment>
  </description>

  <figure>
    <file>koe.pdf</file>
    <label>a dutch cow</label>
    <copyright>Corel Draw Suite</copyright>
    <comment>Did you ever see such a nice cow?</comment>
  </figure>

  <figure>
    <file>koe.pdf</file>
    <label>another dutch cow</label>
    <copyright>Corel Draw Suite</copyright>
    <comment>Do you recognize this cow?</comment>
  </figure>

  <figure>
    <file>koe.pdf</file>
    <label>indeed a dutch cow</label>
    <copyright>Corel Draw Suite</copyright>
    <comment>I bet that you've seen enough cows now.</comment>
  </figure>

</figurelibrary> 

You can generate such a file from for instance a database or key it in by
hand. 

Given that you have the figures as files, you can now say: 

  texexec --pdf --use=fig-01 yourfile.xml

and you will get a file with the following characteristics (copied from
source) 

%D \startopsomming[opelkaar]
%D \som  the document is split into three sections: first each
%D       figure is shown at its own page, then an overview of 
%D       figures is shown with some data alongside, and 
%D       finaly an index and table of contents shows up 
%D \som  there is no title page, which means that one can 
%D       access a figure by page number without offset
%D \som  the document is opened at the first overview page, 
%D       that is, when the viewer supports it 
%D \som  the graphic is shown 3~times: on a page of its own,
%D       scaled to a fixed dimension, and relative to a4 or 
%D       letter paper size 
%D \som  the labels can be accessed in an index and list at 
%D       the end of the document
%D \stopopsomming

If you have said 

  \usemodule [fig-01] % will get a proper synonym later 

The idea is that you can now say

  \externalfigure[a dutch cow][width=4cm]

and the filename will be fetched from the database and the figure loaded
from the associated pdf file. The fall back is of course the traditional
method. 

The advantage of this method is that instead of all kind of figure files,
one has just one file [we will use that method for manual translators too].
Another advantage is that embedding from a pdf file [page n method] is much
faster than loading a file directky. 

I'm willing to extend the functionality and add database entries. This is
the first of a series of small tricks to ease contexting. 

Hans    
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                                  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
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