Re: Preaching DSSSL (Re: using LOUT)

[Chris Herborth]

Previously, Valeriy E. Ushakov (address@hidden) writes:
> > Moving to DSSSL (an ISO standard) using Jade (free and portable) and
> > Lout (free and portable) would really make me happy.
> 
> Now, when Jade is there, investing our efforts in it is the best thing
> we could do to promote both systems.

Definitely.

> > I'd do the work myself, but I don't know Lout or DSSSL at this point. 
> 
> Both are simple indeed.  Lout programming language may look strange at
> first time, like, say, some pure functional language looks strange
> after C.  But, as with any function langauge, once you're out of your
> C mindset, you will discover the inherent power of the system (well
> you'll discover some inherent weakness too).

Like you (and probably everyone else), I'm extremely short on time...
that's why I haven't looked at Lout much in the six months or so since I
discovered it (other than to port it to QNX and BeOS).

I've also got a mental block for functional languages, but I was going
to make an extreme effort to learn Scheme so I could do DSSSL.  :)

> I'd hack into this, but I'm *very* short in time, not enough to dig
> into Jade (written in C++) internals.  There are ~3000 lines of TeX
> backend, so Lout should be of the same complexity.  Perhaps some sort
> of collaborative effort can be organized.

I'd be quite happy to help, but I wouldn't be able to contribute for
several months...  I've got C++ expertise, but no clue about DSSSL and
Lout yet.  I've also got several projects that need to be finished
before I can start investigating Lout...  On the plus side, when I do,
it'll be for QNX, so I'll be able to work on it full time.

Is anyone else interested in using SGML, DSSSL, and Jade with Lout for
printed layouts?  If not, I suppose we should discuss this in private
email.

-- 
----------================================================----------  _
Chris Herborth, R&D Technical Writer   (address@hidden)              | \  _
QNX Software Systems, Ltd.             Arcane Dragon -==(UDIC)==-    | < /_\
http://www.qnx.com/~chrish/            DNRC Holder of Past Knowledge |_/ \_