[DOC-SIG] Library reference manual debate

[John Skaller]

It would seem to me the first step to improve documentation
would be to create a mechanism for people to submit and
retrieve it.

My opinion is that fixing a format is the best way to exclude
most potential submitters. But if a format has to be
picked, it had better be ordinary old HTML, so it can
be put up on a website and used immediately by everyone.

The tree and subtrees should be available compressed.
That can be done automatically by some newer ftp servers.
Not everyone is online all the time!

I want to click on a link, download the whole
thing, unpack it into my web server, add a link to my
home page, and I get a mirror.

HTML is little use for typesetting books, but individual
authors are NOT going to agree on any standard for print
media. They're going to use whatever method they have that
works and their publisher is happy with.

I need to convert my "text-for-printmedia"
into something people can browse. So I'm trying to get
LaTeX2HTML running. It complains about my fancy packages.
It can somehow take "snapshots" -- by magic it seems to me --
of bits it can't understand, but this will only 
work on MY system. So the only person who can convert
my source to HTML is ME.

I really _have_ to get that working. I can't write HTML
at all.

---------------------------------------------------------------

I can envisage a much more sophisticated system, which
accepts all kind of documents and converts them
to other formats as required.

Where are we going to get programmers who can do this
work without the documentation for them to learn Python?

WHO is going to convert submitted LaTeX to HTML?
So, I write a doc using Guido's latex style.
How long until someone converts it and posts it
to the website?

To start off, why not accept documents in
_several_ formats. HTML, Postscript, dvi, and perhaps
a Guido-restricted LaTeX -- assuming Guido is
willing to do the conversion. No? Then we can't
accept that format.
-------------------------------------------------------
John Skaller    email: skaller@zip.com.au
		http://www.zip.com.au/~skaller
		phone: 61-2-6600850
		snail: 10/1 Toxteth Rd, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia



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