Fop Options

[Tom Browder <to...@gmail.com>]

First, thanks to the fop developers for a fine program--it has enabled
successful pdf generation of the GnuCash guide which apparently hasn't
been possible for some time with other docbook tool chains.

I am using the trunk version of fop and have a couple of comments:

When I execute 'fop' without arguments, I see the usage message but I
also see lots of gunk accompanying an exception.  Couldn't that part
be left out?   Most likely the user has intentionally omitted
arguments so he can to see the usage message (if any--I think it is
bad practice to design a CLI program without such a message).

Likewise, the -v and -d options throw exceptions and too much
extraneous info.  Eventually I would like to use 'fop -v' in a
configure test for gnucash, so the cleaner the output the better.

I will be happy to file a bug report if that is appropriate or am I
doing something wrong?

I will also be happy to try to fix the problem, but I am a C++/C/perl
programmer and have no java experience.

But I do have some bash scripting experience and see that fop is a
bash wrapper to Fop, so maybe I can help there.

Thanks.

-Tom

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Re: Fop Options

[Tom Browder <to...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 7:20 AM, Vincent Hennebert <vh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tom Browder wrote:
...
>> When I execute 'fop' without arguments, I see the usage message but I
>> also see lots of gunk accompanying an exception.  Couldn't that part
>> be left out?
> Definitely. Although 'lots of gunk' seems slightly exaggerated to me ;-)

Well, 'gunk' may not be the right word, but at the bottom of the help
lines are shown these lines (after executing 'fop' with no arguments):

Oct 2, 2008 7:19:47 PM org.apache.fop.cli.Main startFOP
SEVERE: Exception
org.apache.fop.apps.FOPException: No input file specified
	at org.apache.fop.cli.CommandLineOptions.checkSettings(CommandLineOptions.java:801)
	at org.apache.fop.cli.CommandLineOptions.parse(CommandLineOptions.java:153)
	at org.apache.fop.cli.Main.startFOP(Main.java:155)
	at org.apache.fop.cli.Main.main(Main.java:202)

So, whatever you call it, it shouldn't be there.

> You can submit a request for enhancement on FOP's Bugzilla:
...
>> Likewise, the -v and -d options throw exceptions and too much
>> extraneous info.
>
> Agreed for '-v', not sure however about the '-d' option. Actually it

I think I confused the outputs and didn't report correctly.  Sorry.

> If you choose to contribute don't hesitate to use the fop-dev mailing
> list to discuss details or ask further questions.

Thanks, Vincent, I will.

-Tom

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Re: Fop Options

[Vincent Hennebert <vh...@gmail.com>]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your comments.


Tom Browder wrote:
> First, thanks to the fop developers for a fine program--it has enabled
> successful pdf generation of the GnuCash guide which apparently hasn't
> been possible for some time with other docbook tool chains.
> 
> I am using the trunk version of fop and have a couple of comments:
> 
> When I execute 'fop' without arguments, I see the usage message but I
> also see lots of gunk accompanying an exception.  Couldn't that part
> be left out?

Definitely. Although ‘lots of gunk’ seems slightly exaggerated to me ;-)
You can submit a request for enhancement on FOP’s Bugzilla:
https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fop

That will allow us to keep track of the issue, although it will probably
be considered of low priority. The good thing is that it should be easy
to fix and actually is a good way to start contributing... although it
does require some basic Java knowledge.


> Most likely the user has intentionally omitted
> arguments so he can to see the usage message (if any--I think it is
> bad practice to design a CLI program without such a message).
> 
> Likewise, the -v and -d options throw exceptions and too much
> extraneous info.

Agreed for ‘-v’, not sure however about the ‘-d’ option. Actually it
didn’t produce any additional info with the few files I tried. Maybe you
can elaborate?


> Eventually I would like to use 'fop -v' in a
> configure test for gnucash, so the cleaner the output the better.
> 
> I will be happy to file a bug report if that is appropriate or am I
> doing something wrong?
> 
> I will also be happy to try to fix the problem, but I am a C++/C/perl
> programmer and have no java experience.
> 
> But I do have some bash scripting experience and see that fop is a
> bash wrapper to Fop, so maybe I can help there.

Well the bash script could probably do with a bit of cleanup, but it’s
a different topic (the error messages you’re mentioning are produced by
the Java application, not by the script). There does seem to be a bit of
legacy in this script, but since it needs to remain portable I’ve always
been a little hesitant to modify it (no cygwin environment to test, for
example).

If you choose to contribute don’t hesitate to use the fop-dev mailing
list to discuss details or ask further questions.
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/dev/index.html#mail-fop-dev


Thanks,
Vincent

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