Re: [Boost-users] Building PDF with Open Source Solution

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Building PDF with Open Source Solution
From: John Maddock (boost.regex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-06-08 07:00:20

>> Nope, doesn't even come close - converting from FO XML and getting
>> all the pagination correct in the output is a hugely complex job -
>> probably why there's only ever been one solution that's even come
>> close to getting it right - and even they (XEP that is) don't handle
>> everything.
>
> And BTW - who cares XEP is open source or not.  We're only
> interested in the result (and the cost) not the software.

Exactly.

> what about using pandoc to convert docbook to pdf ? Has anyone
> looked into this?

Nope, web page looked interesting so I gave it a try:

Boost.Math: pdflatex couldn't handle some of the Unicode characters 
generated and bailed out.
Boost.Type_traits: generated invalid tex file (pdflatex bailed out).
Boost.Config: generated a PDF file, but wasn't much better than a plain text 
dump - you got bold and italics converted, but other than that all document 
structure was lost.

John.