Hello,
We are involved in a SGML project and we are finalisizing
the analysis phase.
At present we are thinking about how to implement the
management of loose-leaf pages updates because any availabe off-the-shelf
comercial implementation can cope with our needs.
We think that the concept of architectural forms can help
to manage the processing the flow between the intial information structures
(SGML semantic tags ) and the presentational/layout structures of the final
pages.
As Rick Jelliffe said in a past discussion on XML-dev
DSSSL ( with the MIF/RTF backend for example) can help to do the
transformations to the the layout structures ( down-sizing), but we can't
obtain any feedback from the layout program to the stylesheet
language.
We know that others programs as Omnimark or Balise can
help to down-size the SGML instances but we will need a flow of dependence
from the pages/layout to the original SGML.
A possible implemention of our system would be to build
three independent Databases:
- Information SGML
Database.
- Layout Database (Quark,
FrameMaker,...).
- Page Objects
Database ( PDF).
and a "meta-Database" to
manage all the "processing" an "relationships" between the
elements of each database. This
"meta-Database" would control and manage the workflow and updates of
the different elements.
Can architectural forms model this meta-database schema to
control the three database from a top structure? Architectural forms can store
all the information about processing.
How difficult would be to build a similar system
?
It will be necessary to define property sets and grove
plans for the Layout scheme and Page scheme, doesn't ? Is there any working
experience on this topic ? ( PDF, Quark, FrameMaker,...)
Any feedack will be of great value for
us!
Thanks,
Jordi Mulet
Editorial Praxis
S.A
