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Re: reading on small devices, was discouraged by .docx

2011-11-28 12:57:01
Hi -

From: "John C Klensin" <john-ietf(_at_)jck(_dot_)com>
To: "Ole Jacobsen" <ole(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com>
Cc: <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 6:28 AM
Subject: RE: reading on small devices, was discouraged by .docx
...
On the other hand, I tried the PDF file out on one of those
small-screen devices and discovered that it preserved the page
format exactly-- by showing pages of the document reduced to
show one page per screen, no scrolling.  The resolution isn't up
to it even if my aging eyes are, so that is no solution either.

In a way, this discussion seems akin to complaints that
it's hard to read RFCs when they're punched onto ticker tape.

I think the discussion of ASCII art and tables is a bit of a red
herring - at those dimensions, the key value of artwork, giving
the user an opportunity to absorb both the gestalt and the
details in a single glance, is lost.  Likewise tables, either
shrunk to illegibility or reduced to one-cell-at-a-time scan
for such a display, lose much of their value for organizing
information and revealing patterns.

15 or 20 years ago, I might have been able to use one of those
small-screen devices.  Nowadays - no way.  If things are
displayed large enough to be legible the amount of vertical
scrolling makes reading anything longer than one (short)
sentence painfully slow.

But here's a solution: let's just wait a few more years, and
the folks who are currently so enthusiastic about using
these gizmos to read RFCs will have been compelled
by their own aging eyes to move on to something else.

Randy

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