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Posted to dev@forrest.apache.org by Erik Ackerman <si...@mac.com> on 2003/11/11 01:54:40 UTC
Change Bars
I have a request from an internal user to implement change bars in the
html and pdf rips of their documentation. I thought I would see if
there was widespread interest in the feature before I got too involved
in it. If there is interest, I will try to do it in a way that can be
implemented within the cvs tree.
Erik Ackerman
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Ross Gardler <rg...@wkwyw.net>.
David Crossley wrote:
> Erik Ackerman wrote:
>
> I wonder if there is a tool out there somewhere that does a "diff"
> between two xml files and generates the differences as xml.
I'm not sure if it could be utilised for this purpose but XMLUnit
(http://xmlunit.sourceforge.net/) has some pretty powerful XML diffing
routines.
Ross
Re: Change Bars
Posted by David Crossley <cr...@indexgeo.com.au>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> David,
> Sorry, I didn't mean to be vague.
> A "change bar" is a vertical line, typically in the left margin, used
> to indicate passages in a document that have changed from one version
> to the next. They normally are only indicative of changes between
> adjacent version, and so they do not accumulate over time.
Okay, nice. And very important in a collaborative environment.
Do you understand the Cocoon pipelines and sitemap yet? If not,
then read up - it is seriously powerful. Basically you need
to generate an xml stream (which might be aggregated) and then
transform it in various ways.
I wonder if there is a tool out there somewhere that does a "diff"
between two xml files and generates the differences as xml.
--David
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Clay Leeds <cl...@medata.com>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> A "rip" is a different format of a document. We (Forrest users)
> write things that conform to the document DTD, but we publish them in
> HTML and PDF formats. The process of converting from one to the other
> is often referred to as a "rip."
FWIW, I believe "rip" is an acronym borrowed from the print/services
bureau sector, which stands for "Raster Image Processor". It's what a
Laser Printer does when it converts PostScript to output. EFI's Fiery
system is an example of a RIP device. I think its use when referring to
generating a web site (HTML or PDF) using Forrest is apropos--although I
think it would apply more to PDF generation than to HTML--however, I
like the use of the term for HTML as well!
Have a nice day!
Web Maestro Clay
p.s. It's also apropos that we're chatting about "RIP" today. It's
Veteran's Day here in the United States, where we honor all those lost
in war, and RIP is also an acronym for "Rest In Peace"...
---
"My religion is simple. My religion is kindness."
- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Juan Jose Pablos <ch...@che-che.com>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> Cheche,
> I probably wouldn't do this with HTML directly. In the HTML I would
> tag a <span> and do the formatting with CSS. All the CSS would need
> would be a left-only border and a bit of margin between that border and
> the text.
>
> Erik
>
ok then,so can you forward a screenshot?
Cheers,
Cheche
Re: Change Bars
Posted by "J.Pietschmann" <j3...@yahoo.de>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> I probably wouldn't do this with HTML directly. In the HTML I would
> tag a <span> and do the formatting with CSS. All the CSS would need
> would be a left-only border and a bit of margin between that border and
> the text.
Well, except for inline changes...
Generating change bars is, if done in full generality, is a *very hard*
problem (consider specifically tables and floats). Heck, even *expressing*
changed parts in XML can be quite uncomfortable because partitioning
the document in changed and unchanged parts doesn't necessarily match the
hierachical document structure. I usually see changes expressed as
singleton elements like
<p>blind text<change-begin role="deleted"/> blind text blind
text</p>
<p>blind text<change-end/> blind text blind
text</p>
I vaguely remember this was discussed on the XSL list some years ago,
and some XSLT code which could deal with the case was published. It's
probably easier to ask again than to dig it out of the archive.
J.Pietschmann
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Erik Ackerman <si...@mac.com>.
Cheche,
I probably wouldn't do this with HTML directly. In the HTML I would
tag a <span> and do the formatting with CSS. All the CSS would need
would be a left-only border and a bit of margin between that border and
the text.
Erik
On Nov 11, 2003, at 4:08 AM, Juan Jose Pablos wrote:
> Erik Ackerman wrote:
>> A "change bar" is a vertical line, typically in the left margin,
>> used to indicate passages in a document that have changed from one
>> version to the next. They normally are only indicative of changes
>> between adjacent version, and so they do not accumulate over time.
>
>
> Please, would you mind to forward some html code, maybe that will give
> us some light on your issue.
>
>> A "rip" is a different format of a document. We (Forrest users)
>> write things that conform to the document DTD, but we publish them in
>> HTML and PDF formats. The process of converting from one to the
>> other is often referred to as a "rip."
>
> I never hear of that.
>
> Cheers,
> Cheche
>
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Juan Jose Pablos <ch...@che-che.com>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> A "change bar" is a vertical line, typically in the left margin,
> used to indicate passages in a document that have changed from one
> version to the next. They normally are only indicative of changes
> between adjacent version, and so they do not accumulate over time.
Please, would you mind to forward some html code, maybe that will give
us some light on your issue.
> A "rip" is a different format of a document. We (Forrest users)
> write things that conform to the document DTD, but we publish them in
> HTML and PDF formats. The process of converting from one to the other
> is often referred to as a "rip."
I never hear of that.
Cheers,
Cheche
Re: Change Bars
Posted by Erik Ackerman <si...@mac.com>.
David,
Sorry, I didn't mean to be vague.
A "change bar" is a vertical line, typically in the left margin, used
to indicate passages in a document that have changed from one version
to the next. They normally are only indicative of changes between
adjacent version, and so they do not accumulate over time.
A "rip" is a different format of a document. We (Forrest users) write
things that conform to the document DTD, but we publish them in HTML
and PDF formats. The process of converting from one to the other is
often referred to as a "rip."
If that is still not clear, please let me know. I know that I have a
tendency to under-explain.
Erik
On Nov 10, 2003, at 8:17 PM, David Crossley wrote:
> Erik Ackerman wrote:
>> I have a request from an internal user to implement change bars in the
>> html and pdf rips of their documentation.
>
> Would you please explain your use case. Also, what is a "change bar"
> and what is a "rip"? Sorry, i have never seen these terms.
> --David
>
>> I thought I would see if
>> there was widespread interest in the feature before I got too involved
>> in it. If there is interest, I will try to do it in a way that can be
>> implemented within the cvs tree.
>>
>> Erik Ackerman
>
Re: Change Bars
Posted by David Crossley <cr...@indexgeo.com.au>.
Erik Ackerman wrote:
> I have a request from an internal user to implement change bars in the
> html and pdf rips of their documentation.
Would you please explain your use case. Also, what is a "change bar"
and what is a "rip"? Sorry, i have never seen these terms.
--David
> I thought I would see if
> there was widespread interest in the feature before I got too involved
> in it. If there is interest, I will try to do it in a way that can be
> implemented within the cvs tree.
>
> Erik Ackerman