Re: keybindings and LaTeX support for refdb-mode

Hi David,

David Nebauer <[email protected]> was heard to say:

> I have encountered two problems building from svn source -- if I'm
> missing something bleeding obvious please point it out.
>

No, I don't think so. It looks like I'll never get it right at the first
attempt.

> Here is the first attempt which fails due to a missing 'refdb-mode.texi'
> (blank lines added for clarity):
>

The refdb-mode.texi hack is explained in the autogen.sh file. The autotools want
this file to be around in the first place if I use the automatic installation
support for this kind of documentation. However, I use docbook2texi to generate
this file from the same sources as the PDF manual. Therefore I have to create a
mock texi file for the autotools and remove it later. Otherwise it would be
newer than the DocBook sources and it would not be rebuilt.

> david@hezmana:temp$ make
> make: *** No rule to make target `refdb-mode.texi', needed by
> `refdb-mode.info'.  Stop.
> david@hezmana:temp$
>

This is a bit strange as the last rule in Makefile.am is the rule to make the
target refdb-mode.texi. I don't get this error on FreeBSD and on Cygwin. Both
use GNU make.

> xsltproc --param fop.extensions 1 --stringparam funcsynopsis.style ansi
> "manual-fo.xsl" refdb-mode-manual.xml > refdb-mode-manual.fo
> warning: failed to load external entity "manual-fo.xsl"
> cannot parse manual-fo.xsl
> make: *** [refdb-mode-manual.pdf] Error 4
> david@hezmana:temp$
>
> Preventing the deletion of 'refdb-mode.texi' enables the build process
> to proceed.  Now the problem seems to be a missing 'manual-fo.xsl'.  I
> note the previous revision of the makefile used the standard docbook fo
> stylesheet.  Perhaps you forgot to include 'manual-fo.xsl' in svn when
> you altered the xsltproc command?
>

Yes, this is obviously the case. I'll fix that tonight.

> By the way, the default 'xsltproc' output is paper type 'USletter'.
> This is a non-standard paper size used primarily in the US.  I'd suggest
> A4 paper size, especially for an internationally distributed
> application.  If you want to produce the PDF manual in this paper size
> add the following parameter to the relevant 'xsltproc' command:
>     --stringparam paper.type A4
>
> IIRC, the main refdb documentation also produces 'USletter' sized PDF
> output.

The German DIN ("German industry norm") paper size system (now an ISO standard)
is a surprisingly well-thought-out engineering feat indeed (see below for an
example). I've created the docs in letter size out of an old habit that you can
print letter size documents on both letter and A4 paper without losing the page
numbers or the running heads while the reverse doesn't always work. However, at
least Acrobat Reader allows to resize the pages appropriately which would allow
to use A4 documents regardless. What is the situation with the free PDF
viewers? Do they allow to resize the pages?

regards,
Markus

The DIN paper size system allows you to pull nice tricks like this one: how many
sheets of A4 paper using standard printer paper of 80g/sqm can you send with the
standard postage valid for letters up to 20g? An A0 sheet of this quality weighs
80g, as its size is defined as a sheet of 1 square meter with an aspect ratio of
sqrt(2) (approx. 1.41). The area of an A4 paper is thus 2^4 times smaller (going
from A0 to A4 is 4 steps with half the area per step), resulting in 80g/16=5g
per sheet. You can stuff 4 of these sheets into a B6 envelope (folding the
paper once in half gives A5 which fits into B5 envelopes. Folding once more
results in B6), assuming the scales allow some extra weight for the envelope.
Use 3 sheets to be on the safe side.

Now if you try this with US paper sizes, you have to know or measure the paper
dimensions of letter or legal paper in order to compute its weight. Then you're
still presented with the problem of fitting one of these paper sizes into an
envelope whose dimensions are not related to the paper size in any logical way,
making at least basic origami skills a prerequisite for sending mail. It is not
much of a surprise that email was picked up most rapidly in the US.



-- 
Markus Hoenicka
[email protected]
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de



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