From owner-freebsd-doc Tue Mar 3 16:27:35 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA29882 for freebsd-doc-outgoing; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 16:27:35 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from phoenix.welearn.com.au (suebla.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.44.81]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA29569; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 16:26:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sue@phoenix.welearn.com.au) Received: (from sue@localhost) by phoenix.welearn.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA21682; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:26:09 +1100 (EST) Message-ID: <19980304112605.61351@welearn.com.au> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:26:05 +1100 From: Sue Blake To: Greg Lehey Cc: stuart henderson , chat@FreeBSD.ORG, FreeBSD Documenters Subject: Re: ps2pdf (was: newbies mailing list) References: <199803030441.VAA11558@const.> <34FBE0CB.C1697F2D@internationalschool.co.uk> <19980304102052.13296@freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: <19980304102052.13296@freebie.lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Wed, Mar 04, 1998 at 10:20:52AM +1030 Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Mar 04, 1998 at 10:20:52AM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: > 3. ASCII is *terrible* to read. One of the reasons I'm still > wondering whether it's worth the trouble is that it's almost > illegible. Whoo, flag-waving time :-) For the past 6 years, I have done most of my reading in ASCII with the occasional addition of ANSI or avatar for colour. I find it the easiest text to read on screen, and the only kind readable under DOS. It is particularly convenient for people whose vision is not real good. The only way I've ever viewed the handbook or faq is on a plain text screen, and I don't feel particularly deprived. Some texts have a lot of the information in the fonts, and these do require either a printer or a GUI, or a good imagination. Ask me what's most convenient to most people who haven't installed FreeBSD yet, and I'll guess WinWord2 (many other word processors can read that), or the conservative RTF that is generated by WinWord2. Ask what's most sure to be accessible by all people, and it's gotta be ASCII. Neither by itself provides anything like a good, much less total, solution. > 4. It is possible to install groff on DOS. I've never done it, and I > have no intention of introducing Microsoft to my workspace, but > people should at least be made aware of the possibility. I've never liked the idea of giving something and saying oh, by the way, you'll have to install something to use this. That's my main objection to depending on things like PDF and Word for windoze environments. If you want people to use particular software you have to supply it and instructions, and hope that they have the required disk space and permission to install it, the resources to run it, and the motivation to go to that length. > BTW, can't you display .html files with Microsoft-based browsers? A long thread in an unrelated mailing list recently concluded that to be as platform independent as possible, HTML files should have names which are 8.3 and all caps. I prepared to install FreeBSD when running OS/2 and hand-renamed all of the handbook's HTML files and links so I could use them with the then-available software. -- Regards, -*Sue*- find / -name "*.conf" |more To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message