Re: how to produce text with facing translation?

[Henning Hraban Ramm <hraban@fiee.net>]

Am 2006-03-03 um 12:45 schrieb Thomas A. Schmitz:
>> i played with dual streams a bit yesterday but have no time to
>> explore it now;
>> it's a tricky business and much depends on what the input / output
>> is to be
>>
>> it is doable to develop a framework for this, but only when you and
>> others first
>> come up with some decent spec (what kind of input, what kind of
>> sync, what kind
>> of content, how to handle floats, etc)
>>
>> Hans
>
> Several other members said they were interested too. So could you
> give us a hint how this can be achieved? Could we start from
> something very simple and then move on to more advanced features? For
> the time being, I don't need any floats etc., just basic texts on
> both sides with footnotes and the possibility to give breakpoints on
> the recto side.

Friendly as ever, Hans suggests that you write a sample/spec how  
you'd like to use this feature, so that he can think about some  
implementation himself.

E.g., would such help?:

\setupsynced[setup name][mode=pages, after=pagebreak, n=2]
% n = (number of synced columns, think of more language versions to  
compare...; default=2)
% mode = pages, columns (default=columns; pages only with n=2)
% after = pagebreak, space, continue...? (what should we do with  
remaining space in column?)
% footnotes = local, ...? (synced text needs its own set of footnote  
counters...)
% frame, background etc.?

\startsynced[mysetup]%
{ greek text }%
{ german text }
\stopsynced

This would be analogous to combinations, but could handle only single  
paragraphs, I guess.
I don't think I need this feature, so it's your turn to propose a  
syntax!

Greetlings from Lake Constance!
Hraban
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