Thanks to all who have replied thus far!
The suggestions so far:
1) HTML: I'll have to look at this html2ps app. I've never heard of it. This
is a possibility and deserves some investigation. The HTML could be
generated by Perl (possibly Python? dunno). This was suggested by private
email and Thomas Ribbrock.
2) Perl (perhaps apart from CGI.pm?), as suggested by Charles Galpin. I do
know a smattering of Perl and it definitely does not intimidate me. It's
good at this sort of thing, but I'm interested in better output than
straight text. Perhaps there's a text-to-postscript module for Perl? I'd
have to look. Barring that, I'd have to consider the HTML route more. Or
would running non-HTML Perl output through nenscript do it?
3) LaTeX is the only other option so far, as confirmed by private email and
Thomas Ribbrock. I'm willing to learn it if it's not a major undertaking.
How much LaTeX would I have to know before I could accomplish what I'm
aiming for? My background: I'm a Winprogrammer for a living, working on
learning enough *nix to get out of Microsoft land if possible. I've written
stuff in several languages (including C, C++, Perl, Python) but I'm no
master of any of these (My clients require FoxPro). I'm not afraid of
investing some time in learning something complex or even difficult, but I'd
prefer it if I could expect some return on the investment of time. If
learning LaTeX is a chore, is it worth the time for someone who's not
involved in publishing? I'd appreciate your opinions.
Hmmm...if I can't make any of these go I might have found my "itch to
scratch" :-)
Thanks again and in advance, gentlemen!
Regards,
Fred Noltie
: On Mon, 24 Jan 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
:
: > Greetings,
: >
: > I have a small business for which I produce invoices on a biweekly
: > basis. I presently create them in a spreadsheet (in Applix, fwiw). I
: > have templates for them, so I'm not re-inventing the wheel every time,
: > but the whole process is very tedious.
: >
: > I want to improve upon my laziness, impatience, and hubris by
: > automating this stuff so that it can be done from the commandline (or,
: > better, from a cron job so that I just grab the printed invoices out
: > of the printer twice a month).
: >
: > These invoices have a small color graphic (though I could certainly
: > dump that if keeping it proved impractical), lots of ruled lines, and
: > a small amount of text. The amounts invoiced vary with each invoice,
: > so I can't simply use a static page. The data appearing in the invoice
: > will be pulled from a database (either a text file or even from MySQL)
: > and inserted into the invoice file. It just seems to me to be a waste
: > of my time filling in these invoices every two weeks when (with the
: > proper tool to produce good output) I could let the computer do it for
: > me.
: >
: > What tools are available for doing something like this? I know that
: > TeX/LaTeX could do it, but a) it seems to me to be overkill and b)
: > learning it might kill me :-)
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