report generators

[Harry George]

mir4uu at yahoo.com (mir nazim) writes:

> hi,
> i wanted 2 know if there is any report generator for python/linux that
> produces reports in variety of formats e.g html/images/jpeg/png etc.
> i  know about report lab but output is pdf. pdf is ok for printing but
> u need a pdf viewer for viewing it. there should be some thing that
> cen viewed from directly from application e.g gtkhtml for gtk, khtml
> for kde etc.

"directly from application" seems odd, since both pdf and html rely on
viewers to get the text onto the display.  

I think most python-to-xyz-format tools go through some neutral format
such as docbook or latex.  The python tool is used to generate those
neutral formats more easily from simpler markups.

My Pdx (http://www.seanet.com/~hgg9140/comp/index.html) does that.  It
goes directly to html, goes via latex to ps, pdf, and html, and goes
via docbook to ps, pdf, html, rtf.  It is from the era of Perl POD.

These days, I'd look at OpenOffice, which can directly generate many
formats, and can be manipulated in xml format.  Python could do that
manipulation.  Or, work with the UDK via python bindings
http://udk.openoffice.org/

-- 
harry.g.george at boeing.com
6-6M21 BCA CompArch Design Engineering
Phone: (425) 342-0007