Re: [Pharo-project] Artefact - a PDF framework
Hi Olivier, I've taken a look at the state of Artefact. Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo? The namespace extensions to ring should be helpful to make two-way changes from both the VW and Pharo side. Stephan Eggermont
Stephan Eggermont wrote
Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo? The namespace extensions to ring should be helpful to make two-way changes from both the VW and Pharo side.
I was thinking the same thing. The usual Smalltalk duplication of effort seems to have been taken to new heights with PDF libs ;-) I totally understand the enthusiasm, because I really want it to (although more viewing than generating)! I looked at doing the port at ESUG last year, but hit the namespace wall... Sean p.s. I was reading the Cairo website the other day and PDF is one of the "output targets". Could that be helpful here? -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Artefact-a-PDF-framework-tp4585877p4603431.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
On 02/05/12 10:53 AM, Sean P. DeNigris wrote:
Stephan Eggermont wrote
Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo?
I was thinking the same thing. The usual Smalltalk duplication of effort seems to have been taken to new heights with PDF libs ;-)
I've loaded Artefact, browsed the code, tried the demos. I've not seen the code for PDF4Smalltalk, because I can't figure out how to browse it without VW. However, looking at the examples at: https://gitorious.org/pdf4smalltalk/pages/Examples I get the (possibly mistaken) impression that the two frameworks do slightly different things, but the final result is a PDF in both cases. Looking at the PDFDemos of Artefact, it's clear how text and tables can be written. However, looking at the PDF4Smalltalk examples, it looks like you have to position the text and tables in your own code. Of course, I may be completely wrong about PDF4Smalltalk, since I've not seen the full code base.
What are we speaking of exactly ? Here are two different features of different level : 1) the composition : - 1a) compose a document with a given structure and a style sheet For the structure, think of section / subsection etc... For the style sheet, think of LaTeX article, book or report.sty For the composition, think of page layout (when to insert page break, compose on several columns, wrap text around figures etc...). High level composition rules for example might forbid to begin a sub-section at the bottom of a page. - 1b) compose a document from a sequence of lower level graphics (including composed paragraph). The composition rule might be very simple, just compose one item over the other, insert page break if it does not fit on page. For composed text, page break can occur at any composed line or only at a carriage return. A good example was VisualWorks Document class. 2) the fileout of the composition in pdf format - 2a) including PDF document structuring conventions (DSC) if ever they exist at Smalltalk level. - 2b) without DSC, but only low level graphics Composing the paragraph also means having all the font metrics available plus eventually all the kerning rules, plus rules for inter-word spacing (non speaking of alignment and tabulation options which should be part of paragraph spec). Which PDF library is doing what exactly ? Are the low level Graphics - entirely PDF library dependent (which would mean no preview via Smalltalk graphics), - entirely dialect dependent (using exclusively VisualPart/Wrapper/GraphicsContext or Morph/Form/Canvas) - mixed (transformation of PDF graphics into Smalltalk graphics for preview and/or translation of Smalltak graphics to PDF graphics) In the last two cases, porting VW <->Squeak/Pharo might not be immediate ;) What about composition? Nicolas 2012/5/2 Yanni Chiu <yanni@rogers.com>:
On 02/05/12 10:53 AM, Sean P. DeNigris wrote:
Stephan Eggermont wrote
Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo?
I was thinking the same thing. The usual Smalltalk duplication of effort seems to have been taken to new heights with PDF libs ;-)
I've loaded Artefact, browsed the code, tried the demos.
I've not seen the code for PDF4Smalltalk, because I can't figure out how to browse it without VW. However, looking at the examples at: Â https://gitorious.org/pdf4smalltalk/pages/Examples I get the (possibly mistaken) impression that the two frameworks do slightly different things, but the final result is a PDF in both cases.
Looking at the PDFDemos of Artefact, it's clear how text and tables can be written. However, looking at the PDF4Smalltalk examples, it looks like you have to position the text and tables in your own code. Of course, I may be completely wrong about PDF4Smalltalk, since I've not seen the full code base.
On 2 May 2012 16:53, Sean P. DeNigris <sean@clipperadams.com> wrote:
Stephan Eggermont wrote
Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo? The namespace extensions to ring should be helpful to make two-way changes from both the VW and Pharo side.
I was thinking the same thing. The usual Smalltalk duplication of effort seems to have been taken to new heights with PDF libs ;-) I totally understand the enthusiasm, because I really want it to (although more viewing than generating)! I looked at doing the port at ESUG last year, but hit the namespace wall...
Sean
p.s. I was reading the Cairo website the other day and PDF is one of the "output targets". Could that be helpful here?
yes, you are right.. http://www.cairographics.org/manual/cairo-PDF-Surfaces.html
-- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Artefact-a-PDF-framework-tp4585877p4603431.html Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
-- Best regards, Igor Stasenko.
Sorry for the lag, I'm in holidays (off line and high priority for childs) ;-) Artefact is just a response at my needs. For my work, I need faster of a PDF library to generate letters and reports. I have used the Infinite Improbability Drive to build a thin library. In my mind, Artefact is not an ultimate response at each problem but an simple and extensible tool. If someone works on PDF4Smalltalk for Pharo, it's a good thing because I think that it will better to have differents solutions for differents problems. Olivier Le 2 mai 2012 à 16:27, Stephan Eggermont a écrit :
Hi Olivier,
I've taken a look at the state of Artefact. Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo? The namespace extensions to ring should be helpful to make two-way changes from both the VW and Pharo side.
Stephan Eggermont
Stephan Eggermont wrote:
Hi Olivier,
I've taken a look at the state of Artefact. Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian Haider's work to Pharo? The namespace extensions to ring should be helpful to make two-way changes from both the VW and Pharo side.
Stephan Eggermont
Are there any examples on using the Ring namespace extensions ?
participants (7)
-
Ben Coman -
Igor Stasenko -
Nicolas Cellier -
Olivier Auverlot -
Sean P. DeNigris -
Stephan Eggermont -
Yanni Chiu