I have posted my XML 2002 paper on the ISOGEN Web site at:
http://www.isogen.com/papers/production-quality-xsl-fo.pdf
You can also navigate to it at:
http://www.isogen.com/downloads/white_papers/white_papers.jsp
This paper reflects the state of the world as of late October 2002.
Since I wrote it, the following FO implementations have been released or
announced:
- Adobe Document Server. Includes an FO-to-PDF component based on top of
Framemaker. Doesn't implement as many features as XEP or XSL Formatter,
but lets you use Frame-specific functionality from the FO, such as Frame
templates. Provides some extensions, including a revision bar mechanism.
- SUN's xmlroff open-source FO implementation. Written in C. Provides
internationalization features, including support for right-to-left
writing modes. Feature support is "almost basic conformance". Should be
released Real Soon Now (just waiting for final approvals).
- 3B2's to-be-named "free or almost-free" FO implementation, built on
top of the 3B2 formatting engine.
- Antenna House announced Unix and Linux support in 1Q2003 (they are
doing final release testing now).
- IBM's XFC FO implementation was released as part of a larger AFP
product. IBM assures me that it is under active development.
It was standing room only by the time I was done presenting my talk,
which is pretty good considering I was up against Norm Walsh. From the
questions I got asked, it was clear that a lot of enterprises are
starting to investigate the use of XSL-FO to do sophisticated page
composition.
Cheers,
Eliot
--
W. Eliot Kimber, eliot(_at_)isogen(_dot_)com
Consultant, ISOGEN International
1016 La Posada Dr., Suite 240
Austin, TX 78752 Phone: 512.656.4139
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