I presume that was a frustrated email :)
One point I have to make: You say that you have gone through all the problems and eventually sorted them out after working through it etc. Yet after solving the problem you did not write to the list and say (to my knowledge): I have worked out how to solve a particular problem with FOP, here is a patch for the website so others will know how to solve this problem. If this was done then someone else won't come along, exactly like you, and explain how frustrating things are and how someone should make things better. If many people do a bit then there will eventually be a lot of info. The limitations page is probably the place for this. ie. docs/xml-docs/fop/limitations.xml On 2001.12.13 15:35 Matthias Fischer wrote: > Not entirely correct, Arved. I'm not a great specialist on literature, > but I > recall reading Tortilla Flat by J. Steinbeck at school. I remember a > woman > in the story who faked to clean her flat with a vacuum cleaner - the > _first_ > vacuum cleaner in Tortilla Flat - although there was no electricity in > the > entire quarter... > > The FOP documentation "problem", as I see it, is a combination of > different > factors. It has happened to us quite frequently that something didn't > work, > and we had to > 1 find documentation on FO which supplied us with, say for instance, 2 > contradictory statements on the syntax of an attribute; neither worked > 2 assume devoutly that we had committed an error (true in 50% of the > cases) > 3 find out, whether someone would understand our problem and give us a > solution > 4 still have problems > 5 back to 1 > Sometimes the source of the problem was that a feature of FO wasn't > implemented, or that it wasn't implemented with a certain FOP version; > that > a problem was due to performance problems; that I didn't succeed in > articulating what I needed so that someone would understand it, or that > answers wheren't formulated in a way that I understood them etc. etc. > You can immagine that, for instance, non-appearing graphics lead into > intensive testing with regard to (a) the behaviour of FOP/Cocoon under > different Windows versions (b) different compressions of graphic files - > nothing. Then someone in the list tells you, the region containing a > graphic > must be big enough, otherwise FOP tacitly drops the picture. Hormons of > happiness spread throughout the office. The result: some files appear, > some > not. Why? Questions, counter-questions and counter-counter-questions to > the > list: because FOP does with GIF's so and so, and with TIFF's so and so > etc. > Ok. Learn everything you didn't know about graphic formats. Implement it. > Wait 10 minutes, and you don't get your file compiled. > Testing-testing-testing: no significant result. > Question-question-question: > because of a performance problem. How to solve it? Hmmm... - Another > session > of questions and counter-questions bothering other people while they try > to > do honest work. The hapiness-generating answer: portion the stuff you > send > through the processor. How? Does anybody know how to accomplish this? > Please > help... - Etc. etc. etc. > I quoted the example of graphics because it was the most nerve-consuming. > Nevertheless, by far it wasn't the only one. > > My whish to Santa Clause this year: A big fat list containing all major > graphic formats and the FO/FOP-related aspects that concern them. Right > on > the FOP page where everybody cannot avoid to take notice. With a big, red > or > yellow triangled exclamation mark and the wording: Hey, dummies (like > me): > before you get into this business, think of what you wanna achieve and > consider these warnings, or it'll cost you real time+effort=money! > > Imagine a database outputting a table with all the FO commands in one > column > and updated, fresh-of-the-day remarks, warnings, examples etc. like above > in > the example. Enhanced, XML-based search functions. Sit back, take a > drink, > and find in a second all the bottlenecks that would have otherwise broken > your neck. > > Am I a dreamer? Yes, I am. > Can dreams come true? Yes, they can. > > Matthias --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
