SGML/PDF question...

[ac@TechDoc]

Is it possible to create PDFs using a command line? *nix or PC OS?

I need to convert SGML files to PDF without using EPIC Editor. I'm
trying to establish a case to build PDF files and develop in a
UNIX/Linux environment. No, I don't hate Windows--I use it at home. We
use Solaris systems at work to file and organize our SGML files. We use

EPIC Editor in Windows because have to use Adobe Acrobat version 6 --
it's a long story but we have to use version 6 and we're having a lot
of Windows XP/UNIX network rights problems.


My immediate solution is to get rid of the PCs and to simply use a UNIX

environment. But I need to publish technical documents -- thousands of
them -- in PDF format.


And, of course, I have a limited budget, very limited. So limited that
I'm looking to Open source solutions to build my proof of concept.


Thanks,


***@techdoc

[Peter Flynn]

Post by ***@TechDoc
Is it possible to create PDFs using a command line? *nix or PC OS?

Yes, I do it all the time.

Post by ***@TechDoc
I need to convert SGML files to PDF without using EPIC Editor. I'm
trying to establish a case to build PDF files and develop in a
UNIX/Linux environment. No, I don't hate Windows--I use it at home. We
use Solaris systems at work to file and organize our SGML files. We use
EPIC Editor in Windows because have to use Adobe Acrobat version 6 --
it's a long story but we have to use version 6 and we're having a lot
of Windows XP/UNIX network rights problems.
My immediate solution is to get rid of the PCs and to simply use a UNIX
environment. But I need to publish technical documents -- thousands of
them -- in PDF format.

Use some conversion software to create LaTeX source code. There isn't
much conversion software free for SGML, although you could probably
massage together your own using Perl and other utilities. For any
protracted use, I'd convert the SGML to XML and then use XSLT to
create the LaTeX code. The pdfLaTeX program produces excellent quality
PDFs, and LaTeX already knows all about text documents and how to
handle them. The alternative would be to take the same path to XML and
use XSL:FO and one of the free FO processors, but IMHO this is much
more work and not the same typographic quality. Instead of LaTeX you
might use ConTeXt, another TeX processor with more built-in smarts.

///Peter