3 messages in org.oasis-open.lists.docbook-appsRE: DOCBOOK-APPS: Creating Different ...| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Gregory Leblanc | Aug 1, 2000 9:07 pm | |
| Karl Eichwalder | Aug 1, 2000 11:48 pm | |
| Alex Lancaster | Aug 7, 2000 1:32 pm |
| Subject: | RE: DOCBOOK-APPS: Creating Different Output Formats Using DocBook V4.1 XML | |
|---|---|---|
| From: | Gregory Leblanc (GLeb...@cu-portland.edu) | |
| Date: | Aug 1, 2000 9:07:53 pm | |
| List: | org.oasis-open.lists.docbook-apps | |
-----Original Message----- From: Alex Lancaster [mailto:ale...@bigfoot.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 5:03 PM To: docb...@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Creating Different Output Formats Using DocBook V 4.1 XML
"SR" == Sebastian Rahtz
<seba...@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk> writes:
SR> Jorge Godoy writes:
[...]
- texinfo
SR> why?
It's output is good!
SR> good god. we do have different aesthetics.....
Texinfo is not only about TeX, but mainly about `info' documents, IMHO, which is better form of hypertext than HTML, especially for reference guides/API docs because: 1) it's searchable across pages (not just within a page like HTML), 2) can be manipulated purely by keystrokes (and yes, I know about lynx, but info's more sophisticated w.r.t. documentation features, than lynx); 3) info uses a lightweight reader, which doesn't require a behmoth like Netscape... great if you just want to quickly look up an API or a function within Emacs, whilst programming...
I hate to say this, being an Emacs fan (although not a member of the religion), but not everybody uses Emacs. Not to mention that all but 1 info reader that I've used so far is just about IMPOSSIBLE for a *nix newbie to use. The exception is the GNOME Help Browser, and that uses an info to HTML converter to do everything. :-) Searchable across pages is a nice feature, but I've got no idea how to do that. BTW, HTML doesn't require a behemoth, it can be done quick and dirty, as has been done with GNOME and KDE. There are also programs that use the Mozilla engine for just it's HTML capabilities, making them extremely small and fast. The other point to mention here is the prevalence of HTML vs. the prevalence of info as Hypertext documents. HTML may not be better, but it's bigger and much better known. I'm not saying that texinfo is necessarily bad, just that I can't come up with a really good reason for needing it. Greg