On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 12:01:00AM +0100, Buttay cyril wrote:
Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
On Sun, Aug 27, 2006 at 11:14:51PM +0100, Buttay
cyril wrote:
I'm currently working on a (python) wiki to
pdf converter, based on
wiki2pdf, which is no longer actively maintained.
My hobby horse is "Get The Glue Right", which leans me to ask:
would it not be {easier,more useful} to direct effort towards
wikitext2docbook? Doesn't docbook already know how to get to PDF?
Well, I picked one of the existing project (wiki2pdf) for the following
reasons:
1- it uses python, which is one of the only languages I am nearly
comfortable with (I'm not a programmer)
2- the objective for me is to create a wikibook-to-Latex converter. I
plan to keep this piece of code client-side, because I know that even a
really good parser will need some tweaking of the LaTeX source to
produce a good pdf on something as long as a wikibook. Among the
features of the program is the automatic download of images and wiki
pages, something I can easily do with python
Indeed, and I vote for client side, as well.
3- the list of alternative parsers (
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Alternative_parsers ) does not mention
wikitext2docbook, and says that flexbisonparse is "Intended as an
eventual replacement to the parsing code inside MediaWiki itself", which
is rather promising!
I don't know that that is what Magnus is calling it, but that's what it
does. I forget what language he's doing it in. Check the list
archives; he's mentioned it here in the last couple of months (and may
well chime in here).
In an other hand, the tests I made with docbook were
not very good from
a typographic point of view (I think the docbook to pdf conversion uses
LaTeX, but the stylesheets are oriented towards automation rather than
quality). I will have a look at wikitext2docbook, though.
Worth a couple minutes, at least, I would think. My perception of it
is that if someone's going to put work into fixing the typography, the
more people who can benefit from that, the better. Hence, I kibitz.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth jra(a)baylink.com
Designer Baylink RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24
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The Internet: We paved paradise, and put up a snarking lot.