Hi,

my problem is, FOP can't be run on non ascii environments.
I started a similar topic in July, my solution worked, but had not been
really good for most people.
I revised the problem a little bit, and I think I found a solution that
should fit for everybody.

There are 2 problems:
- config files:
    The config-files are ASCII files, but jar-files are binary files, so

    on EBCDIC systems everything is messed up.
    Fix: When accessing the config files add a standard ascii locale
like "iso-5589-1".
    No problem on ASCII Systems. Fix for EBCDIC.
- pdf generation process:
    AFAIK pdf can handle different character encodings. (Is that right
???)
    BUT: AFAIK pdf can handle only different character encodings of the
CONTENT
    of the document, NOT the TAGS. (Is that right ???)
    For example the pdf tag <A> (Don't know whether there is this tag)
has
    to be in the resulting pdf file independent from the character
encoding of
    the content: 0x3c 0x41 0x3e.
    In FOP this pdf tags are handled like normal strings and character
conversion takes place,
    which is on ASCII or Unicode or UTF or.. Systems no problem, because

    all used characters are below 0x80 and therefore not converted.
    Only EBCDIC has a problem, because the Java 2-byte unicode gets
    converted at the output to EBCDIC, and here also the characters
below 0x80
    are different.
    Fix: There are two solutions possible:
      - Hard code the binary values of the tags. Really much work.
      - Use at the output a ascii locale. Much less work, but I don't
know whether
         that will produce a problem with the unicode support.

Any comments are welcome.
I'm not a pdf nor a character encoding specialist, but I simply have to
run
FOP on a S/390, so forgive me any mistakes.

Is there a chance a fix for EBCDIC systems could be introduced to the
official FOP, because
more and more people are mailing me questions and I'm tired explainig it
over and over again.

Thanks,

Markus

begin:vcard 
n:Bernhardt;Markus
tel;cell:0171-5770462
tel;fax:089-420903-20
tel;home:089-6378949
tel;work:089-420903-14
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
url:www.swsgmbh.de
org:Software Service Wulf Schupp GmbH;Spieljoch
adr:;;Spieljochstr. 34;München;;81825;Germany
version:2.1
email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
title:Entwicklungsleiter
note;quoted-printable:[dF]Quisam=0D=0Awww.discordian-Front.de=0D=0AHail Eris !!!=0D=0AHappy Frag !!!
fn:Markus Bernhardt
end:vcard

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to