[fedora-java] FOP, gcj, classpath, oh my!

[Cameron McCormack]

Hi people.

Karsten Wade:
> > > Can someone give fedora-docs-list an update about our ability to put out
> > > a 100% free, gcj-compiled DocBook toolchain?

Thomas Fitzsimmons:
> > I've been meaning to test this against Rawhide but haven't got to it yet.  When 
> > I do, I'll report the status here.  (I have a feeling there will have been 
> > improvements because of the Java2D work in GNU Classpath).

Mark Wielaard:
> Yes, I have CCed Cameron and Francis who might have the most up to date
> status on all this. If we have a good description of what really must
> work then we can concentrate on those parts of gcj, classpath, batik and
> fop that are essential to the documentation team.
> 
> I installed FC6test3, but cannot find the fop package that Tom created
> (or did I only dream that he did? maybe it was never submitted?). We
> might need to import/backport some recent classpath CVS fixes into the
> FC6 libgcj to make it all work since I know just days ago some new
> support for batik went into GNU Classpath (hi Francis, hi Cameron).

Yes, I’ve just last week started to try to identify what Classpath
problems are preventing Batik from working.  Since the Fedora people will
(presumably) only be interested in rasterising static SVG documents,
this should avoid having to deal with any Swing issues just yet.

We are collecting the issues regarding FOP and Batik here:

  http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics/GnuClasspathCompatibility

One thing I have noticed during my limited testing so far is that the
rasteriser (and the SVG browser, too) is running pretty slowly compared
to on Sun’s JVM.  My first guess would be a mismatch of ColorModels
between what Batik is providing and what the Cairo layer underneath is
exepcting (which was a problem for Batik running under Sun’s OSX JVM a
while ago), but I haven’t checked into this yet.

Some simple files work, others don’t.  I really have to do some more
testing before knowing which areas need to be looked at.  I will report
back (and update the wiki page above) when I have found out more.

If the Fedora documentation people want to provide examples of the kinds
of things they will be processing, that would help to prioritise the
work.

I am not sure about the state of FOP running with Classpath.  Jeremias
Märki (CC’d) should know more.

Thanks,

Cameron

-- 
Cameron McCormack, http://mcc.id.au/
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