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From: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
Subject: Re: [FAQ] Dave's Smalltalk FAQ - DISCUSSION
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Reply-To: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight)
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Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 22:21:03 GMT
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In <4apagi$gf3@watnews2.watson.ibm.com> David N. Smith <dnsmith@watson.ibm.com> writes:

>Several recent packages/technologies allow distribution of typeset
>documents. One is, of course, the WWW and HTML. Another are packages such
>as Adobe Acrobat. Both run on most platforms and both are essentially
>free. Both forms can be mechanically produced from the files created by
>high-end word processing systems such as FrameMaker and Word. 

Some of us do a lot of travelling, and are often accessing things from
locations with minimal facilities. Although both these technologies
are available free, they may involve downloading a significant chunk
of software and installing it. It's also much harder to grep if you
don't have a text form.

>If I create a text FAQ, then it takes a tremendous amount of work to make
>it into a typeset FAQ.  If I create a typeset FAQ to start with, then it
>(unfortunately) takes a lot of work to make a clean, readable, text FAQ.
>It doesn't look I can easily have both.

Is it really that hard to generate text. I just saved the netscape
home page as a text file, and it came out looking pretty decent. I'd
be willing to settle for agood typeset FAQ with a passable text
version.

-- 
 Alan Knight                | The Object People
 knight@acm.org             | Smalltalk and OO Training and Consulting
 alan@objectpeople.on.ca    | 509-885 Meadowlands Dr.
 +1 613 225 8812            | Ottawa, Canada, K2C 3N2

