Consider the counterproposition: Nobody wants really ugly stuff. :-) Cheers, Martin
Martin Packer, zChampion, Principal Systems Investigator, Worldwide Banking Center of Excellence, IBM +44-7802-245-584 email: [email protected] Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker Blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/MartinPacker From: John McKown <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: 17/11/2014 17:52 Subject: Re: Redesigning the Principles of Operation Manual Sent by: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <[email protected]> On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 11:31 AM, Paul Gilmartin < [email protected]> wrote: > On 2014-11-16, at 15:43, Robin Vowels wrote: > > > > HTML isn't something that a manual should be in. > > It almost never prints properly (prints half-lines etc), doesn't have > organised > > page numbers or index, etc etc. > > > Line lengths and page numbers are matters of presentation, not > semantics. Tim Berners-Lee et al. invented HTML for semantic > markup. Through decades it has been perverted to a presentation > bias by those who misguidedly value form over content. > ​Unfortunately, this is the majority. Along the lines of "Why do men prefer beautiful women to intelligent women?" A: "Because men can see better than they can think.". The same is true of most users. They like the eye candy, not the information. > > Indices, TOCs, and cross-references are quite practical in HTML. > They must contain hyperlinks to topics, not page nmbers. Many > (yet too few) HTML pages allow the viewer to re-flow text simply > by resizing a viewer window. Where suitable, such as > <PRE>program code</PRE> exist. > > "Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on > a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, > when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another > computer, another word processor, or another network." > -- Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996 > > http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/ > > There would probably be value in a renderer from HTML (semantic-oriented) > to hardcopy (perhaps via PDF), adding page numbers to ToCs, etc. But > printing a manual is *so* 20th Century. > ​And so you correctly label both of my co-workers., the the first thing they do is _physically print_ a PDF or even a web page if they want to read it "in depth". Personally, I prefer using my tablet or even my phone, if I'm in the doctor's office. > > -- gil > -- The temperature of the aqueous content of an unremittingly ogled culinary vessel will not achieve 100 degrees on the Celsius scale. Maranatha! <>< John McKown Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU
