Re: Preaching DSSSL (Re: using LOUT)

[Sebastian Rahtz]

 > Given that Lout is highly portable and is very easy to install - this
 > is not so much a problem.  Lout compiles out of box on any Unix
ok, now you have covered 2% of the SGML/DSSSL marketplace...

 > machine with ANSI C compiler.  Besides precomipled Lout is available
 > as a package for most Linux distributions and for FreeBSD, so people
the same 2%

 > can just say pkgadd (or whatever) and it's there.  MS-DOS Lout is
0%
 > availble from my ftp.  On OS/2 Lout is reported to compile out ofbox
.001%

 > Plan9 port should be straight, though I don't know if anyone actually
.000001%

 > did this.  And if I correctly understood recent posting from Chris
 > Herborth, he has made QNX and BeOS ports.  I don't know what has
.00000001%

what about the worlds most common environments, from the Satan
of Seattle?

 > PDF backend to Lout would be a good thing to have.  As far as I can
 > tell, changes will be mostly local to the print service (z24.c).  It's
 > also interesting to investigate if it is possible to propagate Lout
 > crossreferences into PDF.
it was moderately trivial in TeX, so should be easy enough in lout

 > Jeff>  Life would be so much easier if PostScripts fonts and font
 > Jeff>  metric files were available (and widely distributed) in Unicode
 > 
 > As I haven't read PDF specs, can anyone who has tell us if PDF does
 > address this problem?
PDF deals with the final deliverable, where Unicode doesnt matter;
true, PDF only deals with 8 bit fonts, but thats just a question of
mapping from the Unicode internal coding to the right character in an
output font.

if Lout is to be a big-time DSSSL back end, it needs to get into
Unicode internal processing, or things just go mad.

Sebastian