Re: [Savannah-hackers] submission of texi2latex -- convert Texinfo to LaTeX - savannah.nongnu.org

[Torsten Bronger]

Hallöchen!

Sylvain Beucler <address@hidden> writes:

> [...]
>
>> Torsten Bronger <address@hidden> described the package as
>> follows:
>> License: gpl
>> Other License: 
>> Package: texi2latex -- convert Texinfo to LaTeX
>> System name: texi2latex
>> Type: non-GNU
>> 
>> Description:
>> A program that transforms Texinfo documentation to the LaTeX format.  For
>> this, the native XML output of makeinfo is taken and transformed to LaTeX
>> using XSLT.  There are three possible ways: 1. direct transformation, 2.
>> transformation to tbook (http://tbookdtd.sf.net) which can be transformed
>> to good LaTeX, and 3. not using XSLT at all but C, C++, or Flex.  I want
>> to implement the direct approach first, and the others only if the direct
>> approach is unsuitable for certain situations.    Some things, eg a
>> program that converts Unicodes to LaTeX commands, would be taken from the
>> tbook project.  It may be necessary to add further small programs in
>> compilable languages, e.g. for parsing the Texinfo formula syntax to LaTeX
>> or MathML (not necessary for the direct approach).  All will be kept
>> together by main program written in a compilable or scripting language for
>> doing the complete conversion, including bitmap format transformation.
>
> Do you already have some source code?

All I have are 500 lines of XSLT source of february that convert
Texinfo's XML to tbook:
<http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/torsten.bronger/texitotb.xsl>.  As
an example, the Texinfo of PP3 at http://pp3.sourceforge.net/manual/
is converted to
<http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/torsten.bronger/pp3-tb.pdf>.

As you can see, most works already (even keyword index and simple
graphics inclusion).  But if you look closer, you see that's all but
perfect.  One reason is that tbook is not a suitable intermediate
format.  Therefore I want to make a direct approach, totally
independent of tbook.

> We wish to review your source code, even if it is not functional, to
> catch potential legal issues early.
>
> For example, to release your program properly under the GPL you must
> include a copyright notice and permission-to-copy statements at
> the beginning of every file of source code.  This is explained in
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html.  Our review would help catch
> potential omissions such as these.

Oh well, it was a mere quick study.  It has never been published,
you are the first person who sees it, so it has no licence.  I will
start perfectly new files anyway.  I'll do it like I did it for
tbook, see
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/tbookdtd/tbook/tbookxsl.dtx?rev=2.96&view=markup
but substitute the GPL for the Artistic Licence 2 that I used there.

> [...]
>
>> Other Software Required:
>> An XSLT implementation.  I use Saxon for my own purposes, but I
>> will write XSLT code that is independent from a certain XSLT
>> processor.
>
> It would be good to know what XSLT processor you plan to use. For
> example, Saxon has problems: it is released under a GNU
> GPL-incompatible license, and it is written in Java, which means
> you have to make sure it works under a free Java suite if you plan
> to use it as a dependency.

Yes indeed.  I plan to let the user choose.  For example, there may
be a variable in the main shell script.  My XSLT files won't use any
XSLT extensions, so you can use Saxon, xt, Xalan etc.  *I* will use
Saxon privately.

> [...]
>
> We are careful about ethical issues and insist on producing
> software that is not dependent on proprietary software.

I see no such dependencies.

Tschö,
Torsten.

-- 
Torsten Bronger, aquisgrana, europa vetus