Date: Tue, 01 Aug 1995 09:01:58 -0700 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> To: Jan Isley <jan@bagend.atl.ga.us> Cc: jfieber@grendel.csc.smith.edu (John Fieber), roberto@blaise.ibp.fr, doc@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org, www@freebsd.org, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Subject: Re: Updated FAQ on WWW.FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: <199508011601.AA002212919@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 31 Jul 1995 15:02:00 EDT." <199507311902.PAA08061@bagend.atl.ga.us>
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> I think making the "text" version go away is a mistake. In fact, I
> think a text form of the FAQ should be posted maybe once every two
> weeks. I feel so strongly about this need that I volunteered last
> week when Jordon suggested there was a problem. I still volunteer.
A plain vanilla ASCII text version needs to be made available.
However, it "should" be possible to create one from the "SGML master"
using sgmlfmt.
Text versions need to exist, for readable postings to
comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc and others. Having an easily printed and
complete FAQ is very useful. Printing from WWW browsers is a pain, as
it must be done page-by-page, and hyperlinks like the prev/next page and
table of contents links look plain ugly when printed. I'm not saying
that these links should not be there. They should/must be in the HTML
FAQ, but they do not belong in an ASCII text version of the FAQ.
Unfortunately, the SGML master file must be written with ASCII text
conversion in mind; the current pre-FAQ
(http://freefall.cdrom.com/%7Eroberto/FAQ/) is pretty useless if you
convert it to plain text. For example, if you convert question 1.3 to
text, you get:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3. Where can I get FreeBSD?
The distribution is available via anonymous ftp from:
FreeBSD home directory
For the current release, 2.0.5R, look in:
FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE
FreeBSD is also available via CDROM, from the following place(s):
Walnut Creek CDROM
4041 Pike Lane, Suite D-386
Concord, CA 94520 USA
Orders: (800)-786-9907
Questions: (510)-674-0783
FAX: (510)-674-0821
email: WC Orders address
WWW: WC Home page
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If a novice user looks at this, he's going to ask:
What, pray tell, is:
FreeBSD home directory
FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE
email: WC Orders address
WWW: WC Home page
This is pretty useless. The above can be left as hyperlinks, but the
hyperlink descriptions:
FreeBSD home directory
FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE
email: WC Orders address
WWW: WC Home page
should be changed (back!!!) to:
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.0.5-RELEASE/
email: orders@cdrom.com
WWW: http://www.cdrom.com/
If the above was originally done because of severe limitations in
SGML/sgmlfmt, then change the links to read:
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/ (FreeBSD home directory)
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.0.5-RELEASE/ (FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE)
email: orders@cdrom.com (WC Orders address)
WWW: http://www.cdrom.com/ (WC Home page)
[For that matter, isn't there a way to get indentation with SGML???
Having no indentation looks pretty ugly. ]
-- Darryl Okahata
Internet: darrylo@sr.hp.com
DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion or policy of Hewlett-Packard or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.
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