Ctl230 Structured Document Fundamentals
Resources Page (Autumn 2002)

Course Topics

1. LaTeX

• Lecture notes: An Introduction to LaTeX by Donald Ballance (University of Glasgow)

Practical work 1.

• Start working step by step through this tutorial:
  • A Simplified Introduction to LaTeX (.ps) by Harvey Greenberg (University of Colorado)
• Do all the examples in Chapters 1 and 2 of the tutorial, using Emacs to edit your LaTeX files.
• There is no assignment this week :-) but there will be a LaTeX assignment soon
  so work on the tutorial carefully. Try to do Chapter 3 by next week.

2. More LaTeX

• Lecture notes: LaTeX for Linguists by Doug Arnold (University of Essex)
  • LaTeX for Linguists example (Graham Wilcock)
  • Packages: covington.sty, parsetree.sty, avm.sty.
• Practical publication example:
  • A conference paper in LaTeX (Graham Wilcock) and a conference style file
  • A bibliography file in BibTeX (Graham Wilcock) and a bibliography style file

Practical work 2.

• Login to the venus server (by ssh venus) to do the practical work.
  On venus you can use LaTeX conveniently inside Emacs (by ctrl-C ctrl-C), because Emacs includes AUC TeX .
• Continue working through the tutorial:
  • A Simplified Introduction to LaTeX (.ps) by Harvey Greenberg (University of Colorado)
  • Complete Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the tutorial, running LaTeX inside Emacs.
• Assignment 1 (LaTeX).

3. HTML

• Lecture notes: NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML

Practical work 3.

• Make a web page or small website in HTML for the LiTeR Group which you visited last week (see Assignment 1).
  • (They talked about paying you lots of money, but next morning they seemed not to remember very much about that...)

• The main page should have a title, a heading, a staff table, some bullet points, and some links to other pages.
• Don't use any web page composition tools - write the HTML statements yourself using Emacs.
• You can get help with HTML examples from Sizzling Jalfrezi.
• Include some graphics (but not too much) - see examples from Animated GIFs.
• No assignment this week, but save your HTML files to use as part of an assignment next week.

4. PDF and document format conversions.

• Lecture notes: Producing HTML and PDF with LaTeX (University of Cambridge)
  • From LaTeX to HTML
  • What is PDF?
  • From PostScript to PDF
  • GhostScript and GhostView
  • From MS Word to PDF

Practical work 4.

• LaTeX to HTML
  • Convert your LiTeR report (see Assignment 1) from LaTeX to HTML using latex2html. View the result in a web browser.
  • Try inserting several section and subsection headings into your report, and check the format produced by latex2html.
• LaTeX to PDF
  • Convert your LiTeR report from LaTeX to PS using dvips. View the PS using Ghostview.
  • Convert the PS version of the report to PDF using Ghostview. Also convert it from PS to PDF using ps2pdf. View the PDF using Acrobat Reader.
  • Convert your LiTeR report directly from LaTeX to PDF using pdflatex. View the PDF using Acrobat Reader.
• Assignment 2 (LaTeX and HTML Comparison).

5. Introduction to XML

• Lecture notes: Introduction to XML by Doug Tidwell (IBM)

Practical work 5.

• Start reading the extract from Learning XML by Erik Ray (O'Reilly). Read at least the sections about
  • Elements, Attributes, and Well-Formed Documents.
• Using Emacs, create an XML file liter.xml with information about the LiTeR Group (staff names, positions, ...).
• No assignment this week, but save your XML file to use as part of an assignment next week.

6. More XML. Parsing and Validation

• Lecture notes: Validating XML by Nicholas Chase (IBM)

Practical work 6.

• Re-read the sections on Validation Basics and Document Type Definitions (DTDs).
• Using Emacs, write a document type definition liter.dtd for the LiTeR Group information.
  • Add a <!DOCTYPE> line to your liter.xml from last week, giving the DTD name "liter.dtd".
  • Edit both liter.dtd and liter.xml so they match each other.
• Run an XML parser to validate your liter.xml file.
  • On venus, you can run the Xerces XML parser by the command xerces liter.xml
• Assignment 3 (XML Validation). Note: extra information added 31.10.02, updated 06.11.02.

Mid-Semester Break

7. XSLT (XSL Transformation)

• Lecture notes:
  • XSLT Quickly (PDF book chapter)
  • Hands-on XSL by Don Day (IBM)
  • XSL Tutorial (www.w3schools.com)

Practical work 7.

• Hello, World
  • Download and look at hello.xml, hello.xsl and empty.xsl.
  • Run the Xalan XSLT processor like this: xalan -in hello.xml -xsl hello.xsl -out hello.html
  • What if you use an empty stylesheet? xalan -in hello.xml -xsl empty.xsl -out empty.html
• CD Catalog
  • Work through the XSL Tutorial. Use this CD catalog file: cd_catalog.xml.
  • Do the examples like this (example 1): xalan -in cd_catalog.xml -xsl cd_ex1.xsl -out cd_catalog.html
  • Stylesheets: cd_ex1.xsl, cd_ex2.xsl, cd_for.xsl, cd_sort.xsl, cd_filter.xsl, cd_if.xsl, cd_choose.xsl.
• Tee-se-itse: Write your own stylesheets using Emacs in XSL mode. Try the transformations using Xalan.

8. XSLT with XPath. Transforming XML to HTML.

• Lecture notes:
  • XPath chapter from XML in a Nutshell (O'Reilly)
  • Transforming XML to HTML by Doug Tidwell (IBM)

Practical work 8.

• Read the XPath chapter and run the examples using Xalan:
  • XML file: 9-1.xml, XSL stylesheets: 9-2.xsl, 9-3.xsl, 9-4.xsl
• Read Transforming XML to HTML. Run the sonnet example using Xalan:
  • XML file: sonnet130.xml, DTD: sonnet.dtd, XSLT for HTML: sonnet-html.xsl
• Assignment 4 (XML-to-HTML Transformation).

9. XSL-FO (XSL Formatting Objects). Transforming XML to PDF.

• Lecture notes:
  • Introduction to XSL-FO by Dave Pawson
  • Using XSL Formatting Objects, Part 1 and Part 2 by David Eisenberg

Practical work 9.

• Copy these shell scripts: ctl230-xalan and ctl230-fop to your own directory.
• Copy the examples doc1.xml and doc1-fo.xsl from Introduction to XSL-FO to your directory.
  • Transform XML to FO with Xalan: ctl230-xalan -in doc1.xml -xsl doc1-fo.xsl -out doc1.fo
    and then transform FO to PDF with FOP: ctl230-fop -fo doc1.fo -pdf doc1.pdf
  • View the PDF file using Acrobat Reader.
  • Transform XML directly to PDF with FOP: ctl230-fop -xml doc1.xml -xsl doc1-fo.xsl -pdf doc1.pdf
• Do the same with the second examples doc2.xml and doc2-fo.xsl, and view the PDF.
• Read Transforming XML to PDF by Doug Tidwell. (Note: this uses an older version of XSL-FO).
  • XML file: sonnet130.xml, DTD: sonnet.dtd, XSLT for FO: sonnet-fo.xsl (updated by GW)
  • Transform the sonnet to FO: ctl230-xalan -in sonnet130.xml -xsl sonnet-fo.xsl -out sonnet130.fo
  • Transform the sonnet to PDF and view with Acrobat: ctl230-fop -fo sonnet130.fo -pdf sonnet130.pdf

10. XML Applications. DocBook

• Lecture notes:
  • XML Application: DocBook section from Learning XML by Erik Ray (O'Reilly)
  • DocBook: The Definitive Guide by Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner (O'Reilly)
  • Single-Source Publishing with DocBook XML by Dan York

Practical work 10.

• Copy the Simplified DocBook DTD sdocbook.dtd to your directory and study it.
• Copy the example article HelloWorldArticle.xml to your directory and do these exercises:
  • Validate the article according to the DTD using Xerces:
    ctl230-xerces -v HelloWorldArticle.xml
  • Create an environment variable "DB" giving the DocBook stylesheets location:
    export DB=~gwilcock/XML/DocBook/docbook-xsl-1.57.0
  • Transform the article from XML to HTML with Xalan, view HTML in Mozilla:
    ctl230-xalan -in HelloWorldArticle.xml -xsl $DB/html/docbook.xsl -out HelloWorldArticle.html
  • Transform the article to FO with Xalan, transform FO to PDF with FOP:
    ctl230-xalan -in HelloWorldArticle.xml -xsl $DB/fo/docbook.xsl -out HelloWorldArticle.fo
ctl230-fop -fo HelloWorldArticle.fo -pdf HelloWorldArticle.pdf
  • Transform the article directly to PDF with FOP, view PDF with Acrobat Reader:
    ctl230-fop -xml HelloWorldArticle.fo -xsl $DB/fo/docbook.xsl -pdf HelloWorldArticle.pdf
• Assignment 5 (DocBook).

11. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Transforming XML to SVG.

• Lecture notes: Introduction to Scalable Vector Graphics by Nicholas Chase (IBM)

Practical work 11.

• Copy this shell script: ctl230-squiggle to your own directory.
• Copy these examples from Introduction to SVG, study the SVG source, and view them with Squiggle.
  • rectangle.svg, path.svg, shapes.svg, text.svg, gradients.svg (full set of examples here).
  • To view an SVG file using Squiggle (rectangle example): ctl230-squiggle rectangle.svg
  • Using Emacs, make small changes to the values in the SVG files and view the results.
• Read Transforming XML to SVG by Doug Tidwell.
  • XML file: sonnet130.xml, DTD: sonnet.dtd, XSLT for SVG: sonnet-svg.xsl (updated by GW)
  • Transform the sonnet to SVG: ctl230-xalan -in sonnet130.xml -xsl sonnet-svg.xsl -out sonnet130.svg
  • View the SVG sonnet with Squiggle: ctl230-squiggle sonnet130.svg

12. XML Servers, XML Browsers. Transforming XML to Speech.

• Lecture notes:
  • Introduction to Cocoon by Leigh Dodds (IBM)
  • Java Speech Markup Language specification (Sun)
  • Developing VoiceXML Applications by Vivek Malhotra (IBM)
  • Speech Interface Implementation for XML Browser (HUT)

Practical work 12.

• Copy this shell script: ctl230-freetts to your own directory.
• Read the Java Speech Markup Language specification (Sun)
  • XML file: sonnet130.xml, DTD: sonnet.dtd, XSLT for JSML: sonnet-jsml.xsl (by GW)
  • Transform the sonnet to JSML: ctl230-xalan -in sonnet130.xml -xsl sonnet-jsml.xsl -out sonnet130.jsml
  • Listen to the JSML sonnet with FreeTTS: ctl230-freetts sonnet130.jsml
• Assignment 6 (SVG).

Course assessment

• There is no written final examination for this course.
• To gain the course credits, you must complete the assignments as follows
  • For 3 credits: all assignments (basic and advanced).
  • For 2 credits: assignments 1 and 2 and the basic assignments.
  • For 1 credit only: assignments 1 and 2.