Plan for PDF

[Christian Stimming]

Am Samstag, 4. Oktober 2008 14:10 schrieb Tom Browder:
> I am considering developing changes to 'configure.in'

That's good. On the other hand I wouldn't spend too much time into tweaking 
autotool files anymore, in case the solution isn't easily achievable. I.e. if 
you have patches for configure.in, we'd happily apply them, especially if 
they check for the availability of features that will be used during the 
build. However, a simple "check and error out if not available" should be 
sufficient and you shouldn't have to add too much auto-detection code as 
well. People who want to use ./configure themselves can be expected to spend 
more time reading the README and setting up the requirements themselves.

> ( have submitted 
> an enhancement request to have all 'configure.in' files renamed
> 'configure.ac' in accordance with the modern autotools practice)

Uh oh. IMHO they can readily be renamed, but OTOH things have worked with 
the .in suffix all the time :-)

> to do the following:
>
>   1. test for the presence of a suitable version of Apache's fop (I
> have submitted patches to fop developers to fix fop in this regard to
> ease testing it).
>
>   2. test for the presence of the proper version of docbook.xls
>
>   3. if 1 and 2 are satisfied, ensure the pdf target is part of the default
> make

Yes. This sounds like a good approach.

>   4. if 1 and 2 are not satisfied:
>
>       a. remove the pdf target from all Makefiles
>
>       b. refer the user to the details of README (or perhaps
> README.pdf) for obtaining the necessary tools

Yes. I don't quite understand what you mean technically by "removing the 
target", but OTOH I don't have to know that. I guess we all agree the pdf 
target should not be part of "make all" (the default) if its requirements are 
not met. How you achieve this is completely up to you.

> I would also move the additions I made to HACKING to a more suitable
> file such as INSTALL or README or a new README.pdf.

I think README would be just fine.

Once you're working on those files, feel free to remove the sections talking 
about SGML because there isn't any SGML docs in the package anymore, is 
there?

Regards,

Christian