Browsing by Author "Bonham, Mike"

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    SHAPE - A UNIFYING CONCEPT IN DOCUMENT LAYOUT
    (1985-10-01) Bonham, Mike; Witten, Ian H.
    Text objects have traditionally been constrained to be rectangular, a constraint inherited by modern computer document preparation systems. However, a variety of tasks in document formatting benefit from a more general notion of shape. This paper describes such a representation, suitable for graphic composition at both low and high levels of document layout. Intermediate in generality and complexity between rectangles and arbitrary polygons, it comprises separate left and right margin functions composed piecewise of linear segments. Such shapes can be compared, conbined, modified and generated using simple, economical algorithms. This notion of shape appears to provide the correct level of abstraction for elegant solutions to several knotty problems in existing systems. Software methods making use of shape have been implemented in JOT [Bonham 1985], an interactive documentation system under development as part of the University of Calgary JADE project [Witten et al 1983].
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    A STRUCTURED PROCEDURAL DOCUMENT-PREPARATION LANGUAGE
    (1982-03-01) Bonham, Mike; Witten, Ian H.
    This paper examines the problems associated with current document preparation systems, and proposes a new model for typesetting language implementation which appears to offer considerable advantages over alternative structures. A distinction is drawn between the form and content of a document. This emphasizes the differing requirements of the format designer, who needs a convenient language to describe heuristics for text layout; and the author or typist, who needs an object-oriented control language which separates logical entities in the document from their appearance on the printed page. The latter is well served by modern document preparation systems, but the former is not. The work attempts to rectify the imbalance by designing and implementing a language for document specification, in the form of a compiler for an existing document preparation system.
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    VIEWING AND FORMATTING DOCUMENTS ON-LINE
    (1985-05-01) Bonham, Mike
    Flexibility in document preparation systems is important in many ways. Typographical convention directs one to format information in different ways to account for different display hardware capabilities, intended purposes, user preferences and presentation style standards. The advent of interactive computer-mediated viewing of text suggests broadening the concept of "document" to include dynamic and static information from any source, including animated graphics, interactive program dialogues, optional linkages to other data sources and many other possibilities. Despite performance constraints which tend to favour the fastest, simplest display formats, rising user expectations and increased hardware and software capabilities encourage consideration of traditional typography in on-line documents. Flexibility is enhanced by separating specification of form from that of content; this can be achieved to a great degree through object-oriented data representation and programming. Efficiency and speed questions are raised by the prospect of interactive viewing with on-the-fly formatting. These questions are addressed by JOT, a prototype distributed document formatting and viewing system that is flexible and extensible. JOT is intended as a framework or testbed for investigating mechanisms for computer-mediated typography, not as an end-user application system itself. Its implementation, though imcomplete, is suggestive of the merits of this approach.