Re: *****SPAM***** LaTeX to MIF/MML

2013-01-14 Thread Frank Stearns 

On Mon, 14 Jan 2013, Steve Rickaby wrote:

I quizzed the group about this back on '07, but the issue has come 
up again, so it seemed worth fishing for fresh information. Has 
anyone been involved in this type of conversion recently?


Previous discussions seems to center around needing deep TeX and 
programming ability, neither of which I would have the time, 
patience or budget for.


In decades past I did all sorts of custom filters into MIF or MML (DEC 
RNO, Troff/Nroff, Scribe, TeX/LaTeX, et al). It can get very 
messy, very fast. Said another way, very expensive.


These days, cheap OCR is so good that I wonder if you might be time 
and money ahead to OCR the doc to RTF (having the process pick up what 
it can in terms of formatting), import the RTF to FM, then turn loose 
an intern to do clean up. (I only mention RTF because I know of no OCR

system that has MIF or MML as an output option.)

There's a tipping point in the page count between developing a full-on 
automatic converter versus a semi-automatic approach with manual clean 
up, which is what you'd have going the OCR route. This point will 
shift depending on doc complexity.


YMMV. Good luck with it. (If you need a tool to index the results, 
give us a call.  In fact, if the conversion left you with index 
entries scattered in the converted body text, one of the IXgen tools 
could help you get them into proper FM markers.)


Frank Stearns Associates | makers of IXgen(tm) for FrameMaker(r)
fra...@fsatools.com 
TOLL FREE Voice (USA and Canada):  800-567-6421
USA Voice: 360-892-3970  http://www.fsatools.com
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*****SPAM***** LaTeX to MIF/MML

2013-01-14 Thread Frank Stearns 
On Mon, 14 Jan 2013, Steve Rickaby wrote:

> I quizzed the group about this back on '07, but the issue has come 
> up again, so it seemed worth fishing for fresh information. Has 
> anyone been involved in this type of conversion recently?
>
> Previous discussions seems to center around needing deep TeX and 
> programming ability, neither of which I would have the time, 
> patience or budget for.

In decades past I did all sorts of custom filters into MIF or MML (DEC 
RNO, Troff/Nroff, Scribe, TeX/LaTeX, et al). It can get very 
messy, very fast. Said another way, very expensive.

These days, cheap OCR is so good that I wonder if you might be time 
and money ahead to OCR the doc to RTF (having the process pick up what 
it can in terms of formatting), import the RTF to FM, then turn loose 
an intern to do clean up. (I only mention RTF because I know of no OCR
system that has MIF or MML as an output option.)

There's a tipping point in the page count between developing a full-on 
automatic converter versus a semi-automatic approach with manual clean 
up, which is what you'd have going the OCR route. This point will 
shift depending on doc complexity.

YMMV. Good luck with it. (If you need a tool to index the results, 
give us a call.  In fact, if the conversion left you with index 
entries scattered in the converted body text, one of the IXgen tools 
could help you get them into proper FM markers.)

Frank Stearns Associates | makers of IXgen(tm) for FrameMaker(r)
franks at fsatools.com 
TOLL FREE Voice (USA and Canada):  800-567-6421
USA Voice: 360-892-3970  http://www.fsatools.com