Conference vaxuum::online_bookbuilding

341.0. "Command Template and ONLINE.REFERENCE" by IOSG::HUGHES () Fri May 25 1990 11:11

Here are some problems I have experienced with ONLINE.REFERENCE.  The book I am
building uses the command template, using the tags <COMMAND>, <PARAMDEFLIST>
and <PARAMDEFITEM>.

The output is fine for hardcopy, but on bookreader there are two problems:

1. The output for <PARAMDEFITEM>(item) sometimes appears in bold, and sometimes
it doesn't. In hardcopy, all the items come out in bold. I have done two builds
of this book, and each time the items that don't appear in bold are different,
so it appears to be a totally arbitrary thing. I have checked the source files
and the coding for each entry is identical.

Also, when the output for <PARAMDEFITEM> comes out in bold, the output for
<PARAMDEFLIST> appears in a smaller font that usual, and it is placed directly
above <PARAMDEFITEM>, instead of being aligned to the left of the page.


Thus, I either get:

  Fields (font too small)                 Fields
  CLASS (bold)               OR              CLASS (not bold)
  Text.......                                Text.......

instead of the following:

Fields
   CLASS (bold)
   Text.......


2. Also on Bookreader, unlike hardcopy, there are no blank lines appearing
between the output for <PARAMDEFLIST> and the following text, nor is there any
space between, <PARAMDEFLIST> AND <PARAMDEFITEM>.

Thanks
Catrin

    Would you send me a small .SDML file of perhaps two or three <command>
    sections that reproduces these problems?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Mary

    The problems are caused (as you reported offline) because in some
    cases you are nesting a <paramdef_list> within a <description>.
    When you recode to place <enddescription> before the <paramdeflist>,
    you consistently get the proper fonts. Note that, although you state
    in .0, that hardcopy output is fine, there *are* font differences 
    with the hardcopy output when I use software.reference for ps output.
    So the same thing is happening for both online and hardcopy: it comes
    down to a coding error in the cases where you do not end the
    description before you start the param deflist.
    
    In general, you can expect differences between the hardcopy and online
    output for fonts and vertical spacing. This is because larger fonts
    are needed for online, the online window is smaller than the printed
    page, and fewer fonts are available online. 
    
    Hope this helps,
    
    Mary