[Edu-sig] How best to publish?...

[Dustin James Mitchell]

On Sat, 13 May 2000, Jeffrey Elkner wrote:

> Any comments?  It is really important for me that I figure out the
> right way to do this.  I don't have the time I need to do what I'm
> trying to do already, so I can't afford to just look around and check
> things out.  I am willing to learn and use any format, but I want to
> learn and use only one, and I want it to be the one that the Python
> community is most likely to rally around and support.  Am I dreaming,
> or is there such a format?

I know this has been answered by several others, but I wanted to concur
with Kirby in saying that HTML has been, is, and will be the standard for
interoperable Open-Source publishing.

HTML has its problems -- it's been laden with extra features, it's
difficult to tell exactly what output will look like, etc. -- but it's
what we have.

My advice would be this: don't spend the time to learn something that's
proprietary, and that will require people to buy / download viewers.
Spend your time learning the tips and tricks of good HTML coding, making
things render attractively on many browsers.

For instance, see Kirby's lesson (sorry, no reference -- check any one of
Kirby's posts for a link).  He's using only HTML, but has worked very hard
(including what I'm led to believe was HAND COLORING of the python code?)
to make it render attractively on many browsers, and be fairly
printer-friendly.

HTML's like Othello: a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.

Dustin

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|                         Dustin Mitchell                )O(        |
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