You know, given the time spent answering questions about XSL and the XML+XSL
-> XSL-FO front-end ("convenience mechanism") in FOP, I sometimes wonder if
it would be better to rip out that function. Perhaps then folks would
understand better that FOP is fundamentally an XSL-FO -> output format
processor.

As to the original comment, I agree with Eric that is is not appropriate to
consider an FOP extension to accommodate semantics that apply to the XML+XSL
-> XSL-FO 'convenience mapping' mechanism.

G.

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Eric Douglas <[email protected]>wrote:

> It could handle any format you want to write your input in as long as it
> can be translated to FO.  If another format is commonly used for
> generating FOP input someone would just have to write an input
> translator extension.
>
> FOP doesn't even do anything with XML/XSL.  It accepts input as XML/XSL
> as a courtesy extension.  I wrote a transform with embedded code
> starting with data in XML using an XSL to translate it.  Then I figured
> out how to generate FO and split that out as a separate step.  That uses
> the javax transformer.  That step doesn't use any FOP objects.
>
> If you think about it, output could be considered extensions also.  The
> main task of the FOP is to input FO and generate the IF.  Once that's
> laid out it can take various renderers and generate output so you have a
> PDF extension, a PNG extension, a TIFF extension, etc.  They don't need
> to be in the FOP package.  Someone who only wants to create PDFs doesn't
> need any classes which create PNGs.  If you could break all the
> extensions out into subprojects it would make it a few extra steps to
> download but it would be simplified into smaller jars which of course
> load faster if you don't need them all.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher R. Maden [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 9:44 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: FOP Extension to handle Wiki Syntax
>
> On 06/14/2011 07:25 AM, kalgon wrote:
> > Yes I could transform the XML prior to rendering it to PDF but that
> > wouldn't be as nice and clean as an extension which would take care of
>
> > everything. Moreover, an extension can be reused whereas
> > pre-transforming the XML would require a specific XSLT for each XML
> > schema... definitely not the way I want to go.
>
> Except that's how XSL works, and what FOP implements.  FOP takes
> exactly[*] 1 kind of input: the FO markup in XML defined by the XSL
> Recommendations.
>
> Nearly all FOP users, as well as users of other XSL formatters,
> transform their source either with XSLT or some other tool into FO for
> presentation to the formatter.
>
> If FOP supports MediaWiki syntax natively, why not MoinMoin or some
> other wiki?  Why not HTML, DocBook, DITA, CALS, ...?
>
> ~Chris
>
> [*] approximately
> --
> Chris Maden, text nerd  <URL: http://crism.maden.org/ > "Before I built
> a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or  out, / And to whom I
> was like to give offence." - RF, Mending Wall GnuPG Fingerprint: C6E4
> E2A9 C9F8 71AC 9724 CAA3 19F8 6677 0077 C319
>
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