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Conference vaxuum::document_ft

Title:DOCUMENT T1.0
Notice:**New notesfile (DOCUMENT.NOTE) now available (see note 897)**
Moderator:CLOSET::ADLER
Created:Mon Feb 09 1987
Last Modified:Thu Oct 31 1991
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:897
Total number of notes:4397

774.0. "Figure problem using manual.reference template?" by CASEE::BROWN (Lynda Brown) Fri Aug 07 1987 08:19

I'm currently having a problem trying to include some figures, generated
using SIGHT, into my document.

My file includes two figures...the first figure is included where I expect
it to be but the text that follows it is printing at the bottom of the
following page (seems to be an extra form-feed).  The second figure is included
where it should be but the text that follows it is printing correctly on
the same page. The only difference between the two places is that a <HEAD1> 
tag follows the first figure and a <P> tag follows the second figure.  Is
it the <HEAD1> tag that is the problem?

I am trying to use the MANUAL.REFERENCE template.  The file prints correctly
when I use REPORT, MANUAL.PRIMER, or MANUAL.GUIDE but these templates are
the wrong format for what I want.

Any suggestions please?
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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774.1At first glance...COOKIE::JOHNSTONFri Aug 07 1987 15:2316
Did you possibly get bit by the /PASSALL/NOFEED hornet?

What you describe frequently indicates that you failed to print the file 
using those qualifiers, which are required:

$ PRINT/QUE=somequeue/PASSALL/NOFEED filename.LN03
                                             .POST


I think these qualifiers are included in the DESTINATIONS.DAT file, so 
they should be inherent in the DOCUMENT command line.  But not knowing 
how your queues are set up...


Rose    

774.2Sure it's not the figure?GNUVAX::LIBRARIANLooking at the big skyFri Aug 07 1987 16:1810
    
    Are you sure that the two figures are the same size etc.? Just to make
    sure you could try switching around where the two figures are called
    in, calling each in the others place. If you still get the unwanted
    extra space at the same position in the document with the other figure
    in that place, it pretty much has to be a Document quirk. If not,
    perhaps it has to do with one of the figures. 
    
    
    				Lance
774.3tried all those..CASEE::BROWNLynda BrownMon Aug 10 1987 05:5936
    < Is it the passall/nofeed hornet?
    
    No...that was the first thing that I tried when the problem first
    started.  Exactly the same thing happens when I explicitly specify
    Passall/nofeed when I print the chapter.
    
    < Are the figs. the same size etc....
    
    No...the two figures are completely different to each other.  I've
    swopped the placement of the figures in the chapter and when the
    second (largest) figure is put first it is too large to fit on the
    page and it is put at the top of the following page...as one would
    expect.  The first figure prints perfectly O.K. as the second figure
    in the chapter.
    
    The thing that is confusing me at the moment is that, the figures
    printed properly using a different template (report etc.).  Also,
    the first figure definitely should fit on the page I want it to
    go on.  If it was just a case of the figure taking up too much room
    on the page then I would still get the running feet on the first
    page and the figure would just be printed at the top of the second
    page...exactly what happens when I swopped the two figures over.
    But...what actually happens is that the figure is printed where
    I want it to be on the first page but the page number/running feet
    is missing..when you look at the second page, the text that follows
    the figure is printed on the 2nd page EXACTLY  where it should be 
    ON THE FIRST PAGE (ie. great for a cut-and-paste job). The page
    number/running footer for the FIRST page is also printed on the second
    page.                                            
    
    Still in need of help.....
    
    Lynda.
    
    
    
774.4Were those figures cropped...?GNUVAX::LIBRARIANLooking at the big skyMon Aug 10 1987 10:2716
    
    Since you created the figures in SIGHT I'm assuming that you didn't
    crop them. It could be that one of the figures has a lot of blank
    whitespace at the bottom (or top). Try editing each figurefile that is
    being called in with a text editor. You'll be looking at sixel code, so
    expect it to look strange. Move to the very bottom of the file. Look to
    see if there are a whole lot of hyphens. In sixel code hyphens
    represent CR/LF's. If you find a bunch of them, say "whoopee" loudly,
    cut them all out, exit the file, and process your .SDML file again
    calling in the new figurefile. If you don't find a large number of them
    at the bottom, check the top and follow the same procedure. No hyphens
    anywhere? -->  Return to drawing board. 
    
    
    				Lance
    
774.5if all else failsCLOSET::ANKLAMMon Aug 10 1987 17:575
    
    If Lance's suggestions don't solve the problem, please get in touch
    with me directly. I will need access to your sources, sixes, etc.
    
    
774.6problem solved but...CASEE::BROWNLynda BrownWed Aug 12 1987 04:5817
    First of all, thanks for the help.......cropping the figure
    files did the trick nicely.
    
    But I'm still a bit confused - If the extra hyphens at the end of
    the file were the problem, why didn't the same problem happen when
    I just swapped the two figures over? If the extra space meant that
    the figure didn't fit where I thought it should why did it print
    O.K. when I just moved it to a different place in the file? 
    Also, I noticed that there were some spare hyphens at the end of the 
    second figure file (so I removed them just in case) but why didn't
    they cause a problem like the first file?
    
    Anyway, I'm pleased that the problem appears to have been sorted
    out but I'd appreciate a little bit of light being shed on my
    confusion.
    
    Lynda.
774.7bug avoided, not resolvedCASEE::CLARKWard ClarkWed Aug 12 1987 10:3418
    It's nice that there is a work-around for Lynda's problem, but it seems
    to me that there's still at least one bug here:

	1.  When the oversized figure is included, no page number appears
	    at the bottom of the page.

        2.  The <FIGURE_FILE> tag requires a "vertical-size" argument.  The
	    (BL8) documentation doesn't indicate what happens when this
            argument does not match the actual figure.

            I'd assumed that the vertical-size is used to pad or truncate
            the actual figure.  If that's case, the length of the figure
            should not affect formatting.

            In any case, the documentation could be improved.  (Maybe it
	    already has been for V1.0.)

    -- Ward
774.8Dep't of clarificationCLOSET::ANKLAMWed Aug 12 1987 14:2943
    Here is an explanation of the relationship between the <FIGURE_FILE>
tag's vertical size argument and the graphic itself:

    1. The value specified in the vertical size argument is given to
       the text formatter, which constructs the page leaving the specified
       area blank. 

    2. During device conversion, the graphic file is included. The origin
       point of the graphic is the upper left-hand corner of the space
       left by the text formatter.

       This is true for the LN03, which we are discussing here.  For
       PostScript, the origin is the *lower* left of the space reserved.

    3. If the graphic itself is longer or wider than the space left
       by the text formatter, it will overwrite anything that the text
       formatter will have placed on the page in the area now occupied
       by the graphic.

       Furthermore, if the graphic runs off the bottom of the
       page, a page eject will occur.  Then, in the typical case, the
       text which follows the graphic will be positioned at the correct
       depth on the new sheet of paper.

       This is particularly subtle, because some graphics editors create
       "full-page" images, even though the visible content may be only 
       a small part at the top of the image.  That is why sixel files
       sometimes contain a lot of graphic newlines (hyphens) at the end,
       and that is why (1) the page eject described in .0 occurred and
       (2) the technique described in .4 (hyphen-removal) worked.

       As to the question of why the page eject occurred in one place
       and not another:  without looking at the files, one can only
       guess that the figure was positioned lower on one page than
       on another according to the surrounding context.

    The point is that the text formatter has no knowledge about the
    figure itself; it must rely on the fact that the vertical size
    argument is correct and that the graphic itself is within those
    bounds.
    
    -pa (with edits by Mark DeVries)
774.9Implementation glitch or feature?CASEE::CLARKWard ClarkThu Aug 13 1987 04:3112
    Thanks to Patti and Mark for the very detailed clarification of how
    figures are handled by the tag translator and text formatter.

    One aspect of this problem is still not clear.  Is the current behavior
    (1) an unfortunate aspect of the current implementation or (2)
    something that DOCUMENT users will have to contend with in V2 and
    beyond?

    Whichever is the case, the V1.1 Release Notes should probably address
    this figure size issue.

    -- Ward
774.10Don't blame DocumentGNUVAX::LIBRARIANDoing what I can&#039;t to learn how toThu Aug 13 1987 12:2037
    
    RE:-.1
    
    It's not really Document that's causing the trouble here. As Patti
    pointed out, some graphics editors (such as SIGHT) create figures that
    are full-page size no matter what. If the actual picture or whatever
    you created is only 5 picas square, the rest of the figure that SIGHT
    creates is filled with 'whitespace'. You can't see this whitespace, but
    it takes up space. 
    
    Since it looks to you like the figure you have created is only 5
    picas that's what you tell Document to expect, and it dutifully leaves
    a 5 pica hole. Then it tries to include a figure that is more like
    50 picas tall. You end up with the problems Patti described. 

    There are several workarounds to this problem;
    
    	1)	Use GRED and crop the figure when saving it.
    
    	2)	Use SIGHT. Save the figure you create and then read it
    		into GRED and crop it. *** I don't recomment this
    		solution. The ability to pass .UIS files back and forth
    		between SIGHT and GRED probably won't always be around.
    		Also, once a SIGHT file has been read into GRED it is
    		changed a bit. If you try to work on it in SIGHT again you
    		may have problems. *** 
    
    	3)	Use SIGHT. Create your figure so that it takes up 	
    		the whole screen. Save it that big and then use 
    		RENDER/SIZE to reduce the graphic to the size you want. 

    
    There is more information on this subject in the
    CLOSET/VAXUUM::DOC_GRAPHICS (GRED) and SARAH::SIGHT notesfiles. 
                                      
    
    				Lance
774.11Graphics inclusion is still in its infancyVAXUUM::DEVRIESM.D. -- your Device DoctorThu Aug 13 1987 13:4226
    RE: .9  (will it always be so...)
    
    Basically, the only way to "bullet-proof" VAX DOCUMENT against passing
    a graphics file that doesn't behave properly would be to implement a 
    complete LN03 emulator in our software -- and that we are, uh, reluctant
    to do.
    
    It's analogous in the programming world to writing a program in
    a high-level language (or even a low-level one) and then calling
    somebody else's assembly language routine.  You've got to trust
    that their routine stays in the expected address space, doesn't
    muck with the wrong registers, etc.
    
    I'm sorry, but that's the state of things now.  We can just provide
    ways to incorporate (hopefully) well-behaved diagrams prepared by 
    tools that were never intended to create encapsulated graphics.
    Indeed, the notion of compound documents for the masses didn't even
    exist when many of these tools were created.
    
    For the future, these concerns are beginning to be considered.
    In the PostScript world, there are cooperative efforts under way
    to define a well-behaved protocol for included graphics.  VAX DOCUMENT
    V1.0 doesn't do much yet to help here.  This is, in my mind, a high-priority
    item for the "next version".
    
    --Mark