[xep-support] Behavior of xml:base in font configuration file (3.77)

[W. Eliot Kimber]

I think the behavior of xml:base in font configuration files is 
incorrect. At a minimum it's both different from what I expected and not 
useful as currently implemented (in that it doesn't help to make the 
font configuration file transportable).

What I need to be able to do is create a font configuration file that 
can be deployed without knowledge of where either the file itself is put 
or where it is relative to the XEP installation. In this scenario both 
the font configuration file and the fonts it references are in 
consistent locations relative to each other.

Here's what I have in my font configuration file:

<fonts xml:base="../lib/fonts/">

Where the font file is in a directory that is a sibling of the lib/ 
directory, e.g.:

dist/config/xep-fonts.xml
dist/lib/fonts/someefont.ttf
dist/lib/fonts/afm/Helvetica-BoldOblique.afm

A typical font specification is:

    <font name="Helvetica-BoldOblique"
          afm="afm/Helvetica-BoldOblique.afm"
          embed="false">
       <alias name="Helv-BoldOblique"/>
       <alias name="Swiss-BoldOblique"/>
    </font>

I am calling XEP with the FONTLIST set to the location of the 
xep-fonts.xml file, e.g.:

XSLDriver -DXEP_HOME=$XEP_HOME
   -DFONTLIST=/user/local/dist/config/xep-fonts.xml
   myfile.fo

When I make the xml:base value an absolute path ending in "lib/fonts" 
then this font is resolved.

If I use the above relative xml:base, then I get a failure message like 
this:

[error] java.io.FileNotFound exception: 
/home/xml/XEP/fonts/afm/Helvetica.afm (No such file or directory)

This suggests that XEP is using the location of the Java JAR file, not 
the location of the xep-fonts.xml file, as the base for constructing an 
absolute URL from the relative xml:base value.

My reading of both the XML Base specs and RFC 2396, on which it depends, 
suggest that in a case like this the location of the document should be 
used as the base for resolving relative URIs.

This is with version 3.77.

Cheers,

Eliot
-- 
W. Eliot Kimber
Professional Services
Innodata Isogen
9390 Research Blvd, #410
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 372-8122

eliot at innodata-isogen.com
www.innodata-isogen.com
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