[reportlab-users] <a> tag

Aaron Watters reportlab-users@reportlab.com
Tue, 30 Jul 2002 10:10:56 -0400


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Andy Robinson wrote:

>>On Mon, Jul 29, 2002 at 09:43:49AM -0400, Aaron Watters wrote:
>>
>>>This is already implemented in an alternative paragraph
>>>
>>implementation which
>>
>>>we have not released.  Also included are intradocument links and
>>>underlining.
>>>
>>Oh well, I guess that makes my pdf link efforts irrelevant.
>>
>
>Not at all, intra-document links are no problem to add.
>It's doing them -within a paragraph- that is hard - you have
>to track if the words you underline are wrapped, and figure out
>all the separate segments to draw a blue line under, and of course
>cope with all possible alignments
>
>>Will this new model reach the Open Source version sometime soon ?
>>
>
>Not sure. Some things are easier in Report Markup Language, as we have
>a purely declarative model.  Also, we add stuff when customers ask
>and we often add features at the "markup processing" level rather
>than in Platypus.  And we do want to have some reasons for
>people to buy the commercial one, so sometimes we are more
>focused on featurising that.
>
>The next thing coming up - 75% likely to need it in August - is
>Asian line wrapping algorithms.  They have no spaces between
>the words and you don't want to cut characters in half so this
>may need unicode.  Neither out commercial nor our free software
>handles that.  This will probably start off as a separate module
>or prototype to learn lessons for the core.
>
>I think it's more likely and more appropriate to try and design
>an open-source Paragraph implementation which covers all
>the bases:
>  - text can contain arbitrary things and not just words,
>
Mine can do this, very easily.  You can add an object called image and 
put it into
a paragraph, but I haven't gotten around to it yet

>
>    such as dynamic expressions; graphical widgets etc.
>  - full support for underlingin/strikeout etc by resolution
>     of where various markers occur
>
I'm not sure what you mean,

>
>  - absolutely strict specification of the allowed intra
>    paragraph markup
>  - nested lists, bullets and so on.
>
done!

>
>  - support for various non-European writing systems
>
nope, because of my ignorance

>
>  - resolution of cross-references
>  - just as fast as the current one, in the simple cases
>
yes and yes

>
>
>This is a hard problem.  If a bunch of you want to work
>on it I would be very supportive.  The problem for us at
>the moment is that we are very busy trying to make the
>company work, and paragraphs just "aren't broken enough"
>for us to devote a lot of time to it.  I would be happy
>to set up an area in CVS, Wiki, web test harness or
>whatever if enough people could get together and have
>a crack at this.
>

Ok I will release my version tonight.  I'm at a customer site at the moment.
Then everyone else can get to work on it too :).

    -- Aaron Watters

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<br>
Andy Robinson wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">On Mon, Jul 29, 2002 at 09:43:49AM -0400, Aaron Watters wrote:<br></pre>
    <blockquote type="cite">
      <pre wrap="">This is already implemented in an alternative paragraph<br></pre>
      </blockquote>
      <pre wrap="">implementation which<br></pre>
      <blockquote type="cite">
        <pre wrap="">we have not released.  Also included are intradocument links and<br>underlining.<br><br></pre>
        </blockquote>
        <pre wrap="">Oh well, I guess that makes my pdf link efforts irrelevant.<br></pre>
        </blockquote>
        <pre wrap=""><!----><br>Not at all, intra-document links are no problem to add.<br>It's doing them -within a paragraph- that is hard - you have<br>to track if the words you underline are wrapped, and figure out<br>all the separate segments to draw a blue line under, and of course<br>cope with all possible alignments<br></pre>
        <blockquote type="cite">
          <pre wrap="">Will this new model reach the Open Source version sometime soon ?<br></pre>
          </blockquote>
          <pre wrap=""><!----><br>Not sure. Some things are easier in Report Markup Language, as we have<br>a purely declarative model.  Also, we add stuff when customers ask<br>and we often add features at the "markup processing" level rather<br>than in Platypus.  And we do want to have some reasons for<br>people to buy the commercial one, so sometimes we are more<br>focused on featurising that.<br><br>The next thing coming up - 75% likely to need it in August - is<br>Asian line wrapping algorithms.  They have no spaces between<br>the words and you don't want to cut characters in half so this<br>may need unicode.  Neither out commercial nor our free software<br>handles that.  This will probably start off as a separate module<br>or prototype to learn lessons for the core.<br><br>I think it's more likely and more appropriate to try and design<br>an open-source Paragraph implementation which covers all<br>the bases:<br>  - text can contain arbitrary things and not just words,<
/pre>
          </blockquote>
Mine can do this, very easily. &nbsp;You can add an object called image and put
it into<br>
a paragraph, but I haven't gotten around to it yet<br>
          <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
            <pre wrap=""><br>    such as dynamic expressions; graphical widgets etc.<br>  - full support for underlingin/strikeout etc by resolution<br>     of where various markers occur</pre>
            </blockquote>
I'm not sure what you mean, <br>
            <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
              <pre wrap=""><br>  - absolutely strict specification of the allowed intra<br>    paragraph markup<br>  - nested lists, bullets and so on.</pre>
              </blockquote>
done!<br>
              <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
                <pre wrap=""><br>  - support for various non-European writing systems</pre>
                </blockquote>
nope, because of my ignorance<br>
                <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
                  <pre wrap=""><br>  - resolution of cross-references<br>  - just as fast as the current one, in the simple cases</pre>
                  </blockquote>
yes and yes<br>
                  <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:PGECLPOBGNBNKHNAGIJHAEKGDKAA.andy@reportlab.com">
                    <pre wrap=""><br><br>This is a hard problem.  If a bunch of you want to work<br>on it I would be very supportive.  The problem for us at<br>the moment is that we are very busy trying to make the<br>company work, and paragraphs just "aren't broken enough"<br>for us to devote a lot of time to it.  I would be happy<br>to set up an area in CVS, Wiki, web test harness or<br>whatever if enough people could get together and have<br>a crack at this.</pre>
                    </blockquote>
                    <br>
Ok I will release my version tonight. &nbsp;I'm at a customer site at the moment.<br>
Then everyone else can get to work on it too :).<br>
                    <br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; -- Aaron Watters<br>
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