[reportlab-users] manual proposal

[adam hyde]

hi,



> 

> In principle it sounds great.  We'll review in a team meeting today.


great!


> First, some

> questions for Adam and everybody else....

> 

> (1) To everyone: should it start with a "port" of the existing user

> guide, with volunteers

> copying and pasting?  Or would a completely fresh start be best?

> 


I leave this one for others to comment on.


> (2) right now we have vector diagrams drawn with snippets of ReportLab code

> within our PDF manuals.  In principle, with some reworking, these could

> be generated both as bitmaps and as vectors within the PDF copies,

> with a directory in SVN to contain the diagram scripts.



> Adam, would you be OK with trying to extend your toolchain to use these,

> with some help from us?   Or does every one of your manuals have to

> share exactly the same toolchain?

> 


Our input is WYSIWYG, and we keep everything in xhtml. To integrate a
method for script inclusions might be a little tricky in this
environment. Using already rendered bitmaps is not a problem of course.


> (3) is there any mechanism to sync or export the flossmanuals source

> into text that can be committed into SVN?  One of our biggest and best

> "tests" is whether the manuals generate OK; and it would be a bit

> weird trying to keep directories of examples and diagrams synced

> with a web app in a remote repository, rather than just running

> "genuserguide.py" every night as we do now.


we can work something out. what would be your preferred format? xhtml
good enough? 



> 

> (4) Adam, would you be willing to privately share some of your PDF-building

> code with us so we can help make sure it has all the best features? This

> would pay off for all of your manuals, of course.

> 



Well, we currently use plain vanilla reportlab and Pisa. We made some
changes in Pisa and submitted the patches to Dirk. So I have nothing to
forward to you except your own code ;)

You can see the tool that outputs our PDF here:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/objavi

Its really just sucks up the xhtml sources, collates it, and runs it
through Pisa with a predefined css. Thats it.

adam



> 

> - Andy

-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
http://www.flossmanuals.net