[Scribus] Easy way to convert Publisher files using the MHT format

[Maciej Hanski]

Thomas Zastrow wrote:
> Maciej Hanski schrieb:

>> That was the right thing to do. Now, if there were more people
>> interested in this, you could start by collecting all information
>> needed to implement this stylesheet in one place, e.g. in a new Scribus
>> Wiki article. Most of it can be done by non-programmers, e.g. finding
>> out how to match elements and attributes  in source and target file
>> formats. Then, you could submit it as a proposal for Summer of Code 2008
>> ideas:
>> http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Summer_of_code_2008#Blue_Sky_Ideas ,
>> or even, depending on your determination, collect and offer money to a
>> skilled programmer.
>>
>> cheers
>> Maciej
>>
>>   
> 
> I have a *lot* ideas what would be possible with XML / XSL / SLA -
> conversion. 

Call it instinct, but you were the first person that came into my mind
when I thought of "skilled programmers" in the context of XSL, perhaps
because of your previous postings on XSL-FO:)

>But I will not start with this work until there is a stable
> version of the SLA format.

I am fully aware of the major obstacles: the current file format being a
moving target, the new file format obviously far away from being stable,
without any visible progress: http://bugs.scribus.net/view.php?id=111
On the other hand, there would not be much need for XSL transformations
to the new file format until the 1.4 branch gets stable, and we are
probably talking of two years or so, judging by the roadmap and the
current progress.  In  the meantime, and probably some time after that,
1.3.3.* branch will be _the_ Scribus version meant for production, and
there seems to exist real demand among Scribus users for such imports
right now.
So, it would make some sense to me, if an ambitious programmer started
to do some preliminary work on such XSL stylesheets.

just my the ? cents
Maciej