Re: [docbook-apps] Side by side formatting

There is no easy way in XSLT to accurately measure the length of a typeset 
string.  Saving the content to a variable and then using string-length() on 
the variable gives you a character count, but not a physical width, which 
depends on the font family, font size, and character mix in each string 
(lots of m and w letters versus i and j letters).  It usually takes some 
experimentation to come up with an algorithm to convert character count to 
width value.  And be sure to give it a little extra.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marcel Tromp" <>
To: "Bob Stayton" <>
Cc: <>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] Side by side formatting


>I was afraid of that.
>
> Is there a way to dynamically calculate the length of the label in the 
> stylesheet and decide between a list-block title or a block title based on 
> that?
>
> Marcel
> --
>
>
> Bob Stayton wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I think you are expecting too much of fo:list-block.  Each list-item 
>> creates two block areas.  The label's area is set to the width of the 
>> provisional-distance-between-starts minus the width of 
>> provisional-label-separation.  The body area is the available column 
>> width minus the provisional-distance-between-starts.  The FO processor 
>> then fills each area with its contents.  If the label text is wider than 
>> its area, then it will try to break or hyphenate it.  If it has no spaces 
>> and hyphenation isn't allowed or doesn't work, then the text will 
>> overflow its area.  The filling of the body area is similar.  Neither 
>> takes into account an overflow from the other area, which is why you get 
>> overlap.
>>
>> To prevent such overflow, the label area needs to be made wide enough to 
>> fit the label.  Unfortunately, there is no auto-fitting feature in XSL-FO 
>> 1.0, so it requires guessing based on the string length.  You can run 
>> into similar problems with numbered lists that reach over 99 items.
>>
>> Bob Stayton
>> Sagehill Enterprises
>> 
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcel Tromp" 
>> <>
>> To: <>
>> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 10:22 PM
>> Subject: [docbook-apps] Side by side formatting
>>
>>
>>> I am using the side by side formatting example from 
>>> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/SideBySide.html.
>>>
>>> I use this to have section numbers indent left from the body. This 
>>> properly indents the section title to 
>>> provisional-distance-between-starts. However, I was expecting the 
>>> section title to be separated from the label by 
>>> provisional-label-separation if the label is longer than 
>>> provisional-distance-between-starts.
>>>
>>> The latter is not happing and the label overwrites part of the section 
>>> title. With that, I am getting the following warnings from fop:
>>> WARNING: Line 1 of a paragraph overflows the available area by 19549mpt. 
>>> (fo:block, location: 3/355188)
>>>
>>> Is this a problem with fop (I am using 0.95), or am I misunderstanding 
>>> the side by side formatting behaviour?
>>>
>>> Marcel
>>> -- 
>>>
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