Dan Martin wrote:
I need to take a list of medications, display it on a screen which will allow a user to edit the list, and print it in a number of different forms (list for the patient, a hospital progress note, prescription pads). The printed forms have lines, etc, and could have geometric figures such as a logo. The input will likely be in XML.
The display could be done with XHTML. The printed forms could be done using LaTeX commands, but I imagine it would be painful to program. I could learn postscript. I assume Acrobat's pdf is proprietary and cannot be used. I have heard of an XML based page layout language, and such a solution would lend itself to an XSLT transformation.
Does anyone have suggestions?
Sort of a sideways step here... Assume a proportional font (fixed width for all characters). Would it be easier to create a graphic image?
Alternatively, under M$ I was doing something for Treasury Board using Crystal Reports (wouldn't touch it again given a choice). There should be something similar for *NIX. You can set page size, place logos, set up a query to print out results for an individual record or many records. Input could be done interactively or through a database. Output can be done to a GUI or hardcopy. It's a quick and simple solution.
Later Mike