[Scribus] Adaptable layout templates

[Ludwig M. Solzen]

> Is this adaptable layout template idea still part
> of the current SoC proposal for this project?

No idea if it were at all.

> I would be adding substantial templating capabilities
> to the scribus core (via a self-contained library) that
> would then be available for both single users and a
> CMS to use. The templates could describe (eventually)
> both textual formatting and layout of frames on the page.

To start with, it would be a good strategy to have Scribus be able to
process xsl stylesheets and xsl-fo formatted documents (.fo). Scribus could
integrate Xalan (xsl processor) and Apache FOP (formatting objects
processor)(or ConTeXt) to do the actual processing. As for the typographical
quality from the FOP output, Scribus development could spend some effort on
implementing an OpenType processor, and refining the typesetting (line and
page breaking algorithms). Most likely the guys from HarfBuzz might be
interested to investigate the possibilities of merging their Unified Text
Layout Engine with Apache FOP (or ConTeXt), so that this engine could be
used within Scribus. (Perhaps this could be discussed at the Glasgow Text
Layout Meeting 2007 this summer?)

Scribus would also need to import xml content. I suppose that support for
DocBook would be a commendable goal. The more difficult part is of course to
display the FOP output within the Scribus GUI environment, so that the user
could refine the automated output manually.

In a later stage, it would be great if Scribus could actually export xslt
stylesheets.

In any case, I would strongly recommend to use xsl and xsl-fo
syntax/vocabulary to define the templates. XSL is a standard already and it
would be a waste of effort to do the work over. Whereas xsl-fo lacks support
for more demanding features, these could be added, regardless of the present
W3 specification, as long as the processor (either FOP or ConTeXt) would
support them along.

Ludwig