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RE: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative Format in Addition to ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC (draft-ash-alt-formats)

2006-06-15 11:33:38
The problem here is that the requirement to produce ASCII means that many of 
the advantages of the pdf format are lost.

Any diagrams must be replicated as ASCII art. Any formulas have to be 
replicated in TXT format.

The result is that producing a good PDF version adds hugely to the already 
complex process of complying with the TXT requirements.

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel M. Halpern [mailto:joel(_at_)stevecrocker(_dot_)com] 
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:53 PM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative 
Format in Addition to ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC 
(draft-ash-alt-formats)

I would also observe that there is significant evidence that 
there is not a real problem here.

It seems to me that if there was a real problem with the 
graphics, that folks would be publishing RFCs with PS or PDF 
forms, even if those were not normative.
For the thousand RFCs starting with RFC 3000, there are  4 PS 
and 4 PDF documents.  In total, assuming that those are for 
different documents, that is still less than 1% if those RFCs 
published in that time period.

I know some folks are vocal that there is a problem.
But, the evidence suggests otherwise.

In contrast, the evidence suggested for judging the 
experiment is going to be very limited, very subjective, and 
heavily influenced by the fact that the target are folks who 
are presumably particularly interested in a positive outcome.

This experiment is a bad idea.
I am sorry that this is not "constructive" input.  But 
sometimes the right answer is "no."
We already have provision for people to publish pretty 
pictures when they think that is helpful.
If lots of folks do that, and if we conclude that those PDFs 
are more useful than the text documents, then we would have 
something to discuss.

Sure, I hate producing ASCII art.  But then, I hate producing 
document art in any form.  The problem is not ASCII.  It is 
finding a good, clean, understandable, way to express ones ideas.

Yours,
Joel M. Halpern




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