Re: [INTERFACES] RE: ODBC and RDO

On Mon, 27 Dec 1999, Thomas Lockhart wrote:

> > > I think I'd like to start on ODBC for win32. I've got the original notes
> > > people sent on dsnless connections and other stuff. Anything anyone wants
> > > to contribute please drop me a line.
>
> Great!
>
> > > As for format... What about PDF files? We're finding here, where we have to
> > > regularly make 100 page reports or better, PDF is working better for us
> > > than html or postscript. I know people will say postscript is pdf... not
> > > exactly =) Thought I'd ask first. =)
> > PDF isn't that difficult to implement (see the sig). Postscript and PDF
> > are related at the graphics operator level, but other than that, its a
> > different beast.
>
> At the moment, the doc generation scheme is completely automated for
> HTML. For hardcopy (done at each big release), I automatically
> generate RTF, do minor adjustments using Applix, and then save as
> Postscript. Folks have generated PDF from the PS files (they are
> available at ftp://postgresql.org) but afaik direct generation of PDF
> would have the same drawbacks as other formats wrt needing minor
> markup fixes.

I did convert the 6.4 and 6.5 versions of the docs from ps to pdf. I've
got to remove my copies from my web site, and link to the central versions
as they are now obsolete.

> The current scheme is definitely *not* ideal, but it
> works and the tools are available to me on my Linux box (doesn't PDF
> have some proprietary tools required?).

Not true. The recent versions of Ghostscript can convert PS to PDF direct.

Also, Adobe are releasing their Distiller tool for Linux in March (a beta
is on their website I believe). Not sure if its a free or pay item though.

> For the regular PDF generation, we have had at least a couple of
> volunteers, but since the hardcopy changes so infrequently we don't
> stay in touch and I'm not sure if they are still available or if there
> are other issues wrt PDF generation that a "team approach" would be
> helpful.

Well, I must be one of them. I have the full Adobe Acrobat Exchange
product here, so I can add things like annotations (bookmarks), hyper
links etc.

Distiller does add some postscript extensions that allow these to be
generated on the fly, but I think it's better done by hand.

Peter

--
Peter T Mount peter(at)retep(dot)org(dot)uk
Main Homepage: http://www.retep.org.uk
PostgreSQL JDBC Faq: http://www.retep.org.uk/postgres
Java PDF Generator: http://www.retep.org.uk/pdf