Required PDF for STEP Modules Ballot

[Radack, Gerald]

Howard:

It is of course possible to print an HTML file directly.

The problem is that you have to have the right version of the right browser
in order for all the formatting to come out right.  But I thought the intent
of the resolution was that requirements that are purely formatting (e.g.,
font) need not be followed for CDs choosing the HTML route.

So what is an "appropriate form"?

Now that Sophie has opened the possibility of going all the way to IS with
HTML documents, it may be appropriate to think about what formatting we
*must* have in a published HTML standard, and how we are going to achieve
it. What features of HTML are we allowed to use?  What minimum browser
capabilities can we demand from the reader?

I have found that using cascading style sheets and the "class" attribute in
HTML, it is possible to get the HTML to look close to a current generation
SC4 document without embedding a lot of formatting tags or attributes in the
actual HTML document.  (I haven't found a way to do footnotes or page
headers and footers yet.)

Regarding XSL, it depends on what you mean by an "appropriate form".  XSL is
good for making simple transformations between XML documents, or for
transforming bewteen XML and HTML.  It would be painful to try to use XSL to
generate PDF or RTF.  It would probably be better to use a DSSL engine
(e.g., Jade) to generate RTF from an XML document.  But as far as I know,
this would still be a non-trivial task.

		Gerry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Howard Mason [mailto:howard.mason at baesystems.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 7:23 AM
> To: dmprice at us.ibm.com
> Cc: qc at cme.nist.gov; wg10 at steptools.com; nigel.shaw at eurostep.com
> Subject: Re: Required PDF for STEP Modules Ballot
> 
> 
> Just for clarification, the SC4 resolution does not require 
> PDF, just a "printable 
> version".
> 
> Is there anything we can do using XSL or some other XML tool 
> to automatically 
> generate an appropriate form with minimum effort?
> 
> Thanks 
> 
> Howard Mason
>