Method, system and apparatus for an output generator for use in the processing of structured documents

Abstract

Embodiments of systems, methods and apparatuses for an output generator for generating output from processed content of a structured document are disclosed. More specifically, embodiments of an output generator may comprise hardware circuitry operable to order data resulting from the transformation of a structured document as it is generated and format this data according to a format of a corresponding output document to generate output corresponding to the output document.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60 / 675,349, by inventors Howard Tsoi, Daniel Cermak, Richard Trujillo, Trenton Grale, Robert Corley, Bryan Dobbs and Russell Davoli, entitled “Output Generator for Use with System for Creation of Multiple, Hierarchical Documents”, filed on Apr. 27, 2005; 60 / 675,347, by inventors Daniel Cermak, Howard Tsoi, John Derrick, Richard Trujillo, Udi Kalekin, Bryan Dobbs, Ying Tong, Brendon Cahoon and Jack Matheson, entitled “Transformation Engine for Use with System for Creation of Multiple, Hierarchical Documents”, filed on Apr. 27, 2005; 60 / 675,167, by inventors Richard Trujillo, Bryan Dobbs, Rakesh Bhakta, Howard Tsoi, Jack Randall, Howard Liu, Yongjian Zhou and Daniel Cermak, entitled “Parser for Use with System for Creation of Multiple, Hierarchical Documents”, filed on Apr. 27, 2005 and 60 / 675,115, by inventors John Derrick, Richard Trujillo, D...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This situation became progressively more problematic with the advent of networking technologies, however.

Much to the annoyance of many users, however, the proprietary formats of the majority of these electronic documents prevented them from being shared between different platforms: if a document was created by one type of platform it usually could not be processed, or rendered, by another type of platform.

The use of structured documents to facilitate the cross-platform distribution of data is not without its own set of problems, however.

In particular, in many cases the structured document does not itself define how the data it contains is to be rendered, for example for presentation to a user.

Exacerbating the problem is the size of many of these structured documents.

However, as many definitions for these structured languages were designed and implemented without taking into account conciseness or efficiency of parsing and transformation, the use of software applications to transform or render these structured documents may be prohibitively inefficient.

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