Sunday, 16. July 2006 11:53.
Although Project 49 (gendoc to make pdf) was progressing well, and although I still like it, I decided to make a break. There is still quite some work before my customers can start to use PdfMaker. And I implemented a workaround solution for the customer for whom I started this project.Todo: gendoc6.py and gendoc7.py show where I stopped: the left headers are not aligned left (and the right headers not right). The table cell formatting in general needs some deep thought.
The question remains whether this project maks sense at all: PdfMaker does functionally the same as pdfLaTeX, with some differences.
Yes, I agree that:
- LaTeX result is more beautiful. It does automatic hyphenation while PdfMaker doesn't currently even have manual hyphens.
- LaTeX is a stable and widespread system while PdfMaker is maybe just another utopic idea.
But:
- PdfMaker is almost usable to print invoices for a demanding customer, by letting TIM generate a Python script that uses PdfMaker.
- PdfMaker is easier to install and maintain on a computer where no LaTeX users work.
- PdfMaker is quicker than LaTeX.
- PdfMaker is written in Python.
(to be continued)