[haiku] Re: BePDF documentation

Hey,

regarding PDF <-> HTML and printing.
The thing is, you can get HTML to print out reasonably well, but you won't get HTML's advantages easily into PDF. The one major thing for me is that I /like/ to be able to change the layout. Just by resizing the browsers window I can get long or short lines, in/decrease font size, hide images etc. With PDF I can only zoom in and out. It never fits for my taste... For example, I often want to have a document with a narrow window tugged at the edge of the screen to read or copy&paste from. PDFs suck for that. Then there's the flexibility of (X)HTML's appearance. It fits as online documentation, plays nice with a site's search, you can read it OK on the commandline or a repository browser, if you have to, works on small screens etc. Plus, of course, there's no software on Haiku besides abandoned Gobe to create documents for PDF-generation.
The thing is, with choosing PDF, we'd give up all the advantages and flexibility of HTML just for being able to "perfectly" print stuff out. Which IMO isn't the number one usage of an OS' docs. Worse, going with PDF would probably force more people to print stuff out, because on-screen display just sucks too bad. Well, "sucks" may be a bit harsh, but it does have its challenges... 

Regards,
Humdinger
PS: And about "Trash"... Jeez, get off the PC train. Besides, there's no recycling done. It all goes down the virtual vortex of null. Or, if you're like me, that damn landfill is filling up over weeks and sooner or later you go through your half rotten garbage like a bum, looking for his precioussss that "has to be there SOMEWHERE..." 

--
--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-
Deutsche Haiku News @ http://www.haiku-gazette.de

Other related posts: