Re: Docs format

[curt@gwis.com (Cowboy)]

>> On Wed, Aug 02, 2000 at 09:01:24PM -0500, Cowboy wrote:

>> >  How about text ?
>> >  It's 100% compatible with anything.
>> 
>> That's true, and text is a good choice for small snippets like READMEs etc.
>> 
>> However, you can barely convert it to anything useful, because it contains
>> no structure information (meta info about the type of information a
>> particlar part of a text is carrying). For example, if you have a broader
>> terminal (width 100 instead 80), as I do, you can't rearrange the text to
>> fill the free space. You are limited to 78 columns on all displays.
>> 
>> This said, texinfo converted to info format has the same problem :)
>> But at least the original texinfo forma can be converted to fit the type of
>> display (printer, text, ...) you need.
>>  
>> >  ( of course, my favorite editor is still vi so anything containing
>> >  specialized formating ala MS-Word is a huge pain. )
>> 
>> I truly hope I will never see a *.doc ument containing a Hurd manual :)

 While I agree in principal, and acknowledge that the prefered method does
 not fit my preference, I submit that there are cases ( such as a crippled
 system where various word processors will not work ) when ANY meta
 info within a document is a bad thing.

 One of the strong points of *nix text formatting systems, has been that
 plain text can be formatted any way the reader likes.

 Since pure text versions tend to be much smaller than formatted versions,
 may I suggest that both be available ? It's far easier to format plain text
 than it is to UN-format a meta document, particularly when the various
 word processors available will not work for whatever reason.

 The "Microsoft Model" of Word docs pisses me off greatly for exactly
 this reason. One MUST purchase the latest version, to read docs
 distributed in the latest version by default.

 Worse, would be PDF, as the US government is tending toward.
 That's impossible to read by any means, on a crippled system, 
 when help is most needed.

--
Cowboy

Putt's Law:
	Technology is dominated by two types of people:
		Those who understand what they do not manage.
		Those who manage what they do not understand.