Writing PDF files

Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
  
Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?

BTW I'm using MacOS X Lion.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Robin Vowels]

On Oct 17, 11:04 am, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.

You are possibly better off attempting to generate a PCX file or
something
similar, or even a DOC file.

Re: Writing PDF files

[RasikaSrinivasan@gmail.com]

On Oct 16, 8:04 pm, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
>
> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?
>
> BTW I'm using MacOS X Lion.
>
> --
> Bill Findlay
> with blueyonder.co.uk;
> use  surname & forename;

Search for a library Haru which helps you create pdf files. It does
support adding graphics files. might give you adequate info. I have
built an ada interface to this as well.

cheers, srini

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 17/10/2011 01:27, in article
8917f181-1e2a-49d1-908b-8f975dc451e9@p35g2000prp.googlegroups.com, "Robin
Vowels" <robin.vowels@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Oct 17, 11:04�am, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
>> simulating a graph-plotter device. �I'm hoping to do this by converting
>> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
>> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
> 
> You are possibly better off attempting to generate a PCX file or
> something similar, or even a DOC file.

Why is that?

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 17/10/2011 03:18, in article
f571bb24-b0a9-44f7-855b-adffe7cbddb8@o19g2000vbk.googlegroups.com,
"RasikaSrinivasan@gmail.com" <rasikasrinivasan@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Oct 16, 8:04�pm, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
>> simulating a graph-plotter device. �I'm hoping to do this by converting
>> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
>> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
>> 
>> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?
>> 
>> BTW I'm using MacOS X Lion.
> 
> Search for a library Haru which helps you create pdf files. It does
> support adding graphics files. might give you adequate info. I have
> built an ada interface to this as well.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I am thinking in these terms because we did exactly this to let beginners
produce graphical output back in 1996, which was when we started teaching
Ada 95 (with GNAT running on Sun servers). My then colleague Satnam Singh
wrote a small Ada library, more less from scratch, that turned simple
graphical commands into PDF.  When we started using PCs to deliver the lab,
we went over to AdaGIDE and Satnam's code was forgotten.

I'd be happy to write my own similar package, if I could find PDF
documentation that did not threaten to make my head explode.
Existing Ada code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:04:23 +0100, Bill Findlay wrote:

> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
>   
> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?

You can use cairo, a vector graphic library. Cairo supports PDF surfaces.

Starting from GtkAda 2.18, cairo is a part of GtkAda. There is also thicker
bindings cairoada, which is more comfortable to use.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: Writing PDF files

[Manuel Collado]

El 17/10/2011 2:04, Bill Findlay escribi�:
> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
>
> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?
>
> BTW I'm using MacOS X Lion.

Have you considered generating SVG code? It is just text, and not as 
esoteric as PDF. Not as widely supported as PDF, but viewable in decent 
modern web browsers.

-- 
Manuel Collado - http://lml.ls.fi.upm.es/~mcollado

Re: Writing PDF files

[Gautier write-only]

On Oct 17, 4:31 am, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> I'd be happy to write my own similar package, if I could find PDF
> documentation that did not threaten to make my head explode.
> Existing Ada code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose.

Hi Bill,
I am often tempted to begin one in the same fashion as Excel Writer
( http://excel-writer.sourceforge.net/ ). But probably you'll be
faster...
The ingredients:
- a documentation, like from OpenOffice
- a small existing code in whatever language
- stick to a version of PDF where things were simple
- begin to implement only what you need (don't expect to be ever
complete anyway, and contributions will come naturally!)
With that you can get a nice PDF Writer in ~10 hours.
If you re-use the type system of Excel Writer with streams, etc. it
will be even faster.
Have fun!
______________________________________________________________________________
Gautier's Ada programming -- http://gautiersblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Ada
NB: follow the above link for a valid e-mail address

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:04:23 +0200, Bill Findlay  
<yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> a écrit:

> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any  
> chance?
I don't what KDF9 is, nor its plotting device, but could SVG be an option  
? There are already some XML libraries in the place, some even with Schema  
validation.

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Randy Brukardt]

"Bill Findlay" <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:CAC12F97.FDDC%yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk...
>I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of
> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting
> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a
> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain.
>
> Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any 
> chance?
>
> BTW I'm using MacOS X Lion.

When we had this requirement for the Ada Standard, I ended up choosing to 
create an RTF file (rather than DOC or attempt to create PDFs directly). 
Part of the reason for that was the lack of documentation of exactly what is 
in a PDF file (I think that is more available nowdays, back then Adobe was 
charging $$$ for that information), and another part is the embedded fonts 
in the PDF (very hard to emulate).

The RTFs our tool produces were designed for Microsoft Office 97 (and work 
reasonably well in Office 2003); they work in OpenOffice as well (but as 
might be expected, there are some formatting glitches -- and RM takes about 
an hour to open, compared to 30 seconds on Office).

The RTFs then go through an old version of Acrobat. (If I could get 
OpenOffice formatting to work consistently, I'd use it's built-in converter 
for that job.

RTF is relatively easy for a program to create (it is a plain text format), 
and Microsoft has extensive documentation on how it works. Or, you could 
just "borrow" part of the RM formatting tool (it will have a GPL license the 
next time it gets updated, which should be this week).

                                     Randy.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

Thanks to everyone who has offered help with this.

KDF9 is a historic British computer from 50 years ago:

   <http://www.findlayw.plus.com/KDF9>

I have written a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005 that runs on MacOS X, Linux and
Windows, and am now hoping to complete the set of KDF9 I/O devices it
supports.  At option a Calcomp graph plotter could be fitted in place of a
tape punch.  It interpreted 6-bit commands that directed it to move one step
left/right and/or back/forward, with the pen raised or lowered.  That's it.

All I need is the ability to create a line drawing specified by a series of
such commands, so very basic vector drawing.  It would be good if users
could see the plot immediately on completion, just by opening the plot file.

PDF would seem to offer this convenience.  Thanks for the pointers to other
formats that might do the job.  I'm not going to plunge into powerful
graphics frameworks, partly to preserve portability and ease of building,
and partly because life is too short; but some of the other suggestions
might meet my needs.  Time to put my thinking cap on!

Thanks again.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Shark8]

On Oct 17, 5:23 pm, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who has offered help with this.
>
> KDF9 is a historic British computer from 50 years ago:
>
>    <http://www.findlayw.plus.com/KDF9>
>
> I have written a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005 that runs on MacOS X, Linux and
> Windows, and am now hoping to complete the set of KDF9 I/O devices it
> supports.  At option a Calcomp graph plotter could be fitted in place of a
> tape punch.  It interpreted 6-bit commands that directed it to move one step
> left/right and/or back/forward, with the pen raised or lowered.  That's it.
>
> All I need is the ability to create a line drawing specified by a series of
> such commands, so very basic vector drawing.  It would be good if users
> could see the plot immediately on completion, just by opening the plot file.
>
> PDF would seem to offer this convenience.  Thanks for the pointers to other
> formats that might do the job.  I'm not going to plunge into powerful
> graphics frameworks, partly to preserve portability and ease of building,
> and partly because life is too short; but some of the other suggestions
> might meet my needs.  Time to put my thinking cap on!
>
> Thanks again.
>
> --
> Bill Findlay
> with blueyonder.co.uk;
> use  surname & forename;

A possible "almost" solution would be to output PostScript program, as
it is a text-file*, and pump that through Acrobat Distiller or
equivalent.


* There is a binary format; but even the official documentation
presents it in a rather leery light.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Simon Wright]

Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

> Thanks to everyone who has offered help with this.
>
> KDF9 is a historic British computer from 50 years ago:
>
>    <http://www.findlayw.plus.com/KDF9>
>
> I have written a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005 that runs on MacOS X, Linux and
> Windows, and am now hoping to complete the set of KDF9 I/O devices it
> supports.  At option a Calcomp graph plotter could be fitted in place of a
> tape punch.  It interpreted 6-bit commands that directed it to move one step
> left/right and/or back/forward, with the pen raised or lowered.  That's it.
>
> All I need is the ability to create a line drawing specified by a series of
> such commands, so very basic vector drawing.  It would be good if users
> could see the plot immediately on completion, just by opening the plot file.
>
> PDF would seem to offer this convenience.  Thanks for the pointers to other
> formats that might do the job.  I'm not going to plunge into powerful
> graphics frameworks, partly to preserve portability and ease of building,
> and partly because life is too short; but some of the other suggestions
> might meet my needs.  Time to put my thinking cap on!

I see no one has suggested plplot.

I'm looking at it with Jerry from the POV of debugging on Mac OS X, and
just built the first example; the plotting options as installed here are

 < 1> xwin       X-Window (Xlib)
 < 2> tk         Tcl/TK Window
 < 3> ps         PostScript File (monochrome)
 < 4> psc        PostScript File (color)
 < 5> xfig       Fig file
 < 6> null       Null device
 < 7> tkwin      New tk driver
 < 8> mem        User-supplied memory device
 < 9> aqt        AquaTerm (Mac OS X)
 <10> svg        Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG 1.1)

and at first glance 1, 9 and 10 certainly work, 2 and 7 don't
AFAICT. Note 9!

On the other hand, I don't know whether plplot works on Windows ..

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:17:22 +0200, Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> a  
écrit:
> I see no one has suggested plplot.
>
> I'm looking at it with Jerry from the POV of debugging on Mac OS X, and
> just built the first example; the plotting options as installed here are
>
>  < 1> xwin       X-Window (Xlib)
>  < 2> tk         Tcl/TK Window
>  < 3> ps         PostScript File (monochrome)
>  < 4> psc        PostScript File (color)
>  < 5> xfig       Fig file
>  < 6> null       Null device
>  < 7> tkwin      New tk driver
>  < 8> mem        User-supplied memory device
>  < 9> aqt        AquaTerm (Mac OS X)
>  <10> svg        Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG 1.1)
>
> and at first glance 1, 9 and 10 certainly work, 2 and 7 don't
> AFAICT. Note 9!
>
> On the other hand, I don't know whether plplot works on Windows ..
Cool, seems nice.

And according to http://plplot.sourceforge.net/ there already is an Ada  
binding (otherwise, this a C story).

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:03:38 +0200, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)  
<yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> a écrit:
> And according to http://plplot.sourceforge.net/ there already is an Ada  
> binding (otherwise, this a C story).
Potentially appealing too, is the license, which is *L*GPL.

However, it is not clear to me if with LGPL, you are required to  
dynamically link only or if you also can use static library link without  
fears. I just had a look at the Wikipedia entry, which is no more clear  
than my mind:

> Essentially, if it is a "work that uses the library", then it must be
> possible for the software to be linked with a newer version of the
> LGPL-covered program. The most commonly used method for doing so is
> to use "a suitable shared library mechanism for linking". Alternatively,
> a statically linked library is allowed if either source code or
> linkable object files are provided.
What does that mean ? Which sources are you required to provide ? The one  
of the library or the one of the application statically linked to it ?

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Simon Wright]

"Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> writes:

> Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:03:38 +0200, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
> <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> a écrit:
>> And according to http://plplot.sourceforge.net/ there already is an
>> Ada binding (otherwise, this a C story).
> Potentially appealing too, is the license, which is *L*GPL.
>
> However, it is not clear to me if with LGPL, you are required to
> dynamically link only or if you also can use static library link
> without  fears. I just had a look at the Wikipedia entry, which is no
> more clear  than my mind:
>
>> Essentially, if it is a "work that uses the library", then it must be
>> possible for the software to be linked with a newer version of the
>> LGPL-covered program. The most commonly used method for doing so is
>> to use "a suitable shared library mechanism for linking". Alternatively,
>> a statically linked library is allowed if either source code or
>> linkable object files are provided.
> What does that mean ? Which sources are you required to provide ? The
> one of the library or the one of the application statically linked to
> it ?

I don't see those words in COPYING.LIB version 2 as distributed with
plplot (and I thought you don't hold with Wikipedia???!).

I believe it's generally thought that the LGPL is inappropriate for Ada
source code with generics.

However, the plplot bindings have no generics, so may be OK. But I think
that for statically-linked proprietary executables using plplot you
would have to supply at least object code for your proprietary
application so that the user could relink with a newer version of
plplot.

Sounds fraught with difficulty.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Jeffrey Creem]

On 10/18/2011 6:14 AM, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) wrote:
> Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:03:38 +0200, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
> <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> a écrit:
>> And according to http://plplot.sourceforge.net/ there already is an
>> Ada binding (otherwise, this a C story).
> Potentially appealing too, is the license, which is *L*GPL.
>
> However, it is not clear to me if with LGPL, you are required to
> dynamically link only or if you also can use static library link without
> fears. I just had a look at the Wikipedia entry, which is no more clear
> than my mind:
>
>> Essentially, if it is a "work that uses the library", then it must be
>> possible for the software to be linked with a newer version of the
>> LGPL-covered program. The most commonly used method for doing so is
>> to use "a suitable shared library mechanism for linking". Alternatively,
>> a statically linked library is allowed if either source code or
>> linkable object files are provided.
> What does that mean ? Which sources are you required to provide ? The
> one of the library or the one of the application statically linked to it ?
>



The idea behind the LGPL language there is that it must be technically 
possible to re-create the program in question and update/replace/bug 
fix/modify the portion that is covered by LGPL. Dynamic linking does 
this. Static linking can support this if you provide the required pieces 
to support it.

So, you could for example provide a binary and the source code to 
everything. If you don't want to do that, you could also provide the .o 
files for the application that you wish to keep licensed under terms 
other than the GPL such that one could re-link those .o files with the 
library (And, provide the scripts, makefile, information required to do 
the relink).

  Usually when I explain this, sw people immediately jump to the 
conclusion that this is silly because version 11.23 of the LGPL covered 
library may not be API compatible with version 11.24 so clearly this is 
not providing the user with anything they'd want. The license language 
is not asking you to warranty that there exists an continuing stream of 
LGPL library updates that will always link against the .o files of  your 
application, but providing them does allow users at least the freedom to 
fix bugs in the LGPL portion and create a new application.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:24:13 +0200, Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> a  
écrit:
> I don't see those words in COPYING.LIB version 2 as distributed with
> plplot (and I thought you don't hold with Wikipedia???!).
Please, what means “to get hold with” in that context ?

> However, the plplot bindings have no generics, so may be OK. But I think
> that for statically-linked proprietary executables using plplot you
> would have to supply at least object code for your proprietary
> application so that the user could relink with a newer version of
> plplot.
>
> Sounds fraught with difficulty.
I read it twice, and understood you are are required to allow reverse  
engineering if ever you statically link to an LGPL stuff. So to feel at  
rest, the best is to use dynamic linking only. On Windows, that's easy,  
just put a DLL into the directory where the binary application reside  
(application's directory is the first place where Windows application  
loader will look to solve DLL dependencies). May seems more difficult on  
Unicies without installing a library system wide, except that may not be  
so much difficult: for Linux and derivatives, use a tiny utility which is  
named “patchelf”, to write an rpath entry in your ELF executable. I did  
not check if relative paths are OK here of only absolute paths make sense,  
but at least, this allow you to dynamically link an application to an  
exact library, without system wide installation (if relative paths are not  
OK for an rpath, then do it from an installer). For MacOS, I can't tell, I  
don't own and don't have access to any.

This PlPlot seems interesting (support a wide range of output among the  
most interesting ones), will have a look at it a later time.

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:46:10 +0200, Jeffrey Creem <jeff@thecreems.com> a  
écrit:
> The idea behind the LGPL language there is that it must be technically  
> possible to re-create the program in question and update/replace/bug  
> fix/modify the portion that is covered by LGPL.
OK! That's simply GPL with no contamination so. LGPL, is still GPL  
(internally) for what is licensed with it, and to fulfill the requirement  
of the GPL only on that part, you need some kind access to it. That's  
rather clever finally, kind of bridge between two worlds.

> The license language is not asking you to warranty that there
> exists an continuing stream of LGPL library updates that will
> always link against the .o files of  your application,but providing them  
> does allow users at least the freedom to fix bugs in the LGPL portion  
> and create a new application.
Technically speaking, for that kind of maintenance, dynamic linking is the  
better way to go. However, the case of an API change is still a challenge  
even if wrappers may be an option. If this ever occur, the best is to ask  
the provider of the proprietary application, to build a release compatible  
with the new API, what he/she would probably be glad to do, if he/she  
cares to its users (and reputation). If not an available service, I anyway  
believe this is unlikely someone could safely play with binary objects  
files to fix something --- too much an unsafe hack --- better play on  
something you have access to source and possibly design a wrapper or a  
custom version of the shared library. So, I still vote Shared Library  
(unless I've still not understood).

Thanks for clarifications Jeffrey :) (was clearer than the Wikipedia prose)

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 18/10/2011 09:17, in article m2ehyasoh9.fsf@pushface.org, "Simon Wright"
<simon@pushface.org> wrote:

> I see no one has suggested plplot.
> 
> I'm looking at it with Jerry from the POV of debugging on Mac OS X, and
> just built the first example; the plotting options as installed here are
> 
>  < 1> xwin       X-Window (Xlib)
>  < 2> tk         Tcl/TK Window
>  < 3> ps         PostScript File (monochrome)
>  < 4> psc        PostScript File (color)
>  < 5> xfig       Fig file
>  < 6> null       Null device
>  < 7> tkwin      New tk driver
>  < 8> mem        User-supplied memory device
>  < 9> aqt        AquaTerm (Mac OS X)
>  <10> svg        Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG 1.1)
> 
> and at first glance 1, 9 and 10 certainly work, 2 and 7 don't
> AFAICT. Note 9!
> 
> On the other hand, I don't know whether plplot works on Windows ..

Thanks for that info, Simon. I'll investigate ASAP.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Simon Wright]

Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

> On 18/10/2011 09:17, in article m2ehyasoh9.fsf@pushface.org, "Simon Wright"
> <simon@pushface.org> wrote:
>
>> I see no one has suggested plplot.
>> 
>> I'm looking at it with Jerry from the POV of debugging on Mac OS X, and
>> just built the first example; the plotting options as installed here are
>> 
>>  < 1> xwin       X-Window (Xlib)
>>  < 2> tk         Tcl/TK Window
>>  < 3> ps         PostScript File (monochrome)
>>  < 4> psc        PostScript File (color)
>>  < 5> xfig       Fig file
>>  < 6> null       Null device
>>  < 7> tkwin      New tk driver
>>  < 8> mem        User-supplied memory device
>>  < 9> aqt        AquaTerm (Mac OS X)
>>  <10> svg        Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG 1.1)
>> 
>> and at first glance 1, 9 and 10 certainly work, 2 and 7 don't
>> AFAICT. Note 9!
>> 
>> On the other hand, I don't know whether plplot works on Windows ..
>
> Thanks for that info, Simon. I'll investigate ASAP.

One thing I forgot to mention is that, if the plplot cmake process
detects that you have AquaTerm installed, it will include it in the
library; the code called in requires a compiler that understands
Objective C (gcc -ObjC), which none of the Ada-capable compilers I have
do. Of course, one could be built.

My work-round was to build plplot without the Ada binding, using Apple's
gcc, and make a separate libplplotada.a.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:03:58 +0200, Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org> a  
écrit:
> One thing I forgot to mention is that, if the plplot cmake process
> detects that you have AquaTerm installed, it will include it in the
> library; the code called in requires a compiler that understands
> Objective C (gcc -ObjC), which none of the Ada-capable compilers I have
> do. Of course, one could be built.
I don't understand, all GCC can compile Objective-C.

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[Ludovic Brenta]

Yannick Duchêne wrote:
> Simon Wright a écrit: 
>> One thing I forgot to mention is that, if the plplot cmake process
>> detects that you have AquaTerm installed, it will include it in the
>> library; the code called in requires a compiler that understands
>> Objective C (gcc -ObjC), which none of the Ada-capable compilers I have
>> do. Of course, one could be built.
>
> I don't understand, all GCC can compile Objective-C.

No.  This depends on how GCC was configured and built.  Read the
installation guide of GCC[1] about the configuration option --enable-
languages.

[1] http://gcc.gnu.org/install/configure.html

--
Ludovic Brenta.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:31:09 +0200, Ludovic Brenta  
<ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> a écrit:
> No.  This depends on how GCC was configured and built.  Read the
> installation guide of GCC[1] about the configuration option --enable-
> languages.
Yes, I meant implicitly. Sorry for my misleading wording and thanks for  
fixing.

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.”  [Epigrams on  
Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [Idem]
Java: Write once, Never revisit

Re: Writing PDF files

[gautier_niouzes]

Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
# Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance? 

Later:
# I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
# if I could find PDF documentation that did not
# threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
# code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose. 

Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid reinventing something more advanced...
_________________________ 
Gautier's Ada programming 
http://gautiersblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Ada 
NB: follow the above link for a valid e-mail address 

Re: Writing PDF files

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 10/04/2014 15:46, gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com a écrit :
> Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
> # Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance? 
> 
> Later:
> # I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
> # if I could find PDF documentation that did not
> # threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
> # code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose. 
> 
> Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
> Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid reinventing something more advanced...
FWIW, the simplest solution for me is to generate TeX, and the PDF from
that.

Maybe not what the OP wanted, but it works and requires only Text_IO, or
AWS' templates parser for repetitive forms.


-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Writing PDF files

[Natasha Kerensikova]

Hello,

On 2014-04-10, gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com <gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
> # Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any
> chance? 
>
> Later:
> # I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
> # if I could find PDF documentation that did not
> # threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
> # code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose. 
>
> Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
> Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid
> reinventing something more advanced...

I've heard several good opinions about libHaru ( http://libharu.org/ ),
written in C, but they spoke as library users, I'm not sure they really
looked at the code itself.


Hoping this helps,
Natasha

Re: Writing PDF files

[gautier_niouzes]

Le jeudi 10 avril 2014 19:03:32 UTC+2, Natasha Kerensikova a écrit :

> I've heard several good opinions about libHaru ( http://libharu.org/ ),
> written in C, but they spoke as library users, I'm not sure they really
> looked at the code itself.

Perhaps they'd be scared if they did ;-) .

Thanks for the pointer.

G.

Re: Writing PDF files

[gautier_niouzes]

Le jeudi 10 avril 2014 16:59:49 UTC+2, J-P. Rosen a écrit :

> FWIW, the simplest solution for me is to generate TeX, and the PDF from
> that.
> 
> Maybe not what the OP wanted, but it works and requires only Text_IO, or
> AWS' templates parser for repetitive forms.

It seems the OP wanted to output vector graphics.
Anyway something that doesn't require external tools or interfacing with C (and DLL's and so on) would be nice. So far I have a blank PDF generator (very useful, isn't it ?), soon a PDF with "hello world"... 
_________________________ 
Gautier's Ada programming 
http://freecode.com/users/gdemont

Re: Writing PDF files

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:07:31 -0700 (PDT), gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com
wrote:

> It seems the OP wanted to output vector graphics.

Gtk supports PDF surfaces in Cairo. For example:

http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/aicwl.htm#12.6

does plotting, in particular, into PDF.

In general, whatever output generated by Cairo (Cairo is vector graphics
library used in Gtk), it can be rendered on a PDF surface, i.e. in a PDF
file.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 10/04/2014 14:46, in article
362a0c08-07d1-4cf4-a2fe-d338c5423f48@googlegroups.com,
"gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com" <gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
> # Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any chance?
> 
> Later:
> # I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
> # if I could find PDF documentation that did not
> # threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
> # code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose.
> 
> Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
> Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid reinventing
> something more advanced...

I gave up on PDF and implemented a very small subset of Encapsulated
PostScript that was good enough for my very simple requirements (emulating a
Calcomp plotter of the early 19060s).

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 10/04/2014 15:59, in article li6bl5$ga8$1@dont-email.me, "J-P. Rosen"
<rosen@adalog.fr> wrote:

> Le 10/04/2014 15:46, gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com a écrit :
>> Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
>> # Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any
>> chance? 
>> 
>> Later:
>> # I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
>> # if I could find PDF documentation that did not
>> # threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
>> # code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose.
>> 
>> Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
>> Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid reinventing
>> something more advanced...
> FWIW, the simplest solution for me is to generate TeX, and the PDF from
> that.
> 
> Maybe not what the OP wanted, but it works and requires only Text_IO, or
> AWS' templates parser for repetitive forms.

I could do as much as I wanted with EPS using Text_IO, except that I needed
to seek back to the start of the output file to insert a couple of values
that only became known at the end of the plot.  I already had a simple POSIX
subset package, so that was trivial to do as well.

Have a look in http://www.findlayw.plus.com/EPS/

That code is not self-sufficient, as the packages are part of a larger
program, but it should be clear enough how to extract the
context-independent stuff.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[Randy Brukardt]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1138 bytes --]

"J-P. Rosen" <rosen@adalog.fr> wrote in message 
news:li6bl5$ga8$1@dont-email.me...
> Le 10/04/2014 15:46, gautier_niouzes@hotmail.com a écrit :
>> Bill Findlay (Oct. 2011):
>> # Is there a (preferably, simple) Ada library for this purpose, by any 
>> chance?
>>
>> Later:
>> # I'd be happy to write my own similar package,
>> # if I could find PDF documentation that did not
>> # threaten to make my head explode. Existing Ada
>> # code (or even C, at a pinch) might serve that purpose.
>>
>> Did you or someone progress on this topic ?
>> Otherwise I'd have a beginning of package, just wanting to avoid 
>> reinventing something more advanced...
> FWIW, the simplest solution for me is to generate TeX, and the PDF from
> that.
>
> Maybe not what the OP wanted, but it works and requires only Text_IO, or
> AWS' templates parser for repetitive forms.

I use the ARM_Form program to generate RTF, then use a word processor to 
convert that to PDF. RTF is also a text-only format so it can be written by 
Text_IO. One might be able to automate that using LibreOffice or something 
similar.

                                      Randy.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Jeffrey Carter]

On 04/10/2014 02:47 PM, Bill Findlay wrote:
>
> I gave up on PDF and implemented a very small subset of Encapsulated
> PostScript that was good enough for my very simple requirements (emulating a
> Calcomp plotter of the early 19060s).

Good to see someone planning for the future.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Perfidious English mouse-dropping hoarders."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
10

Re: Writing PDF files

[Vadim Godunko]

On Friday, April 11, 2014 2:52:10 AM UTC+4, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> 
> One might be able to automate that using LibreOffice or something 
> similar.
> 
Development version of Matreshka includes support for ODF, native format of LibreOffice.

Re: Writing PDF files

[Bill Findlay]

On 11/04/2014 00:27, in article li79dr$msn$1@dont-email.me, "Jeffrey Carter"
<spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org> wrote:

> On 04/10/2014 02:47 PM, Bill Findlay wrote:
>> 
>> I gave up on PDF and implemented a very small subset of Encapsulated
>> PostScript that was good enough for my very simple requirements (emulating a
>> Calcomp plotter of the early 19060s).
> 
> Good to see someone planning for the future.

   when Constraint_Error => raise A_Laugh;

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;

Re: Writing PDF files

[gautier_niouzes]

> soon a PDF with "hello world"... 

http://sf.net/p/apdf/code/HEAD/tree/

More soon (or not soon)...

Re: Writing PDF files

[robin.vowels]

On Monday, October 17, 2011 1:21:51 PM UTC+11, Bill Findlay wrote:
> On 17/10/2011 01:27, in article 8917f181-1e2a-49d1-908b-8f975dc451e9@p35g2000prp.googlegroups.com, "Robin Vowels" <r.nospam@gmail.com> wrote: > On Oct 17, 11:04 am, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: >> I am writing a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005, and have reached the stage of >> simulating a graph-plotter device.  I'm hoping to do this by converting >> KDF9 plot commands into a PDF file, but am having difficulty finding a >> useful source of info on what a minimal PDF graphics file should contain. 

>> You are possibly better off attempting to generate a PCX file or
>> something similar, or even a DOC file.

> Why is that?

Because it's easy to generate a PCX file.