Talk: Should I html'ize the FAQ?

In article <34af74$5n...@gagme.wwa.com>, Bob Allison <bob...@wwa.com> wrote:
>
>Collin Forbes <col...@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu> wrote:
>>
>>Joshua Bell (jsb...@acs.ucalgary.ca) wrote:
>>
>>: Maintaining HTML documents is MUCH simpler than maintaining plain
>>: text documents; no worries about formatting! No need to juggle
>>: word wrapping! The drudgery of adding in new hyperlinks is about
>>: the only downer.
>>
>>Yeah, but in your "awful html example" you conveniently "hid" the
>>&lt; &gt; escapes needed to pass "<" and ">" through the html parser,
>>yes, even in <pre></pre> structures.
>>
>>It's no big deal usually, but in an ASCII ART FAQ, at least half the
>>pictures will contain a "<" or ">", sometimes in large quantities.  It
>>sounds like too much bother.

If your editor doesn't have search & replace, and you aren't
using an operating system with commands that can do that to a
text file, you're seriously screwed anyway.

>   This could be worked around by doing a search and replace with either
>( and ) or with the escape codes.  If escape codes are put in, it makes
>dealing with the art more difficult.

They're called "elements", actually, but anyway...

>>Now if you were to convert the art into GIFs, and inline them into the
>>html faq--THAT would be something to behold.  :)

Aieee! :)

>   The big problem, as I've mentioned before, is that I would probably 
>use the FAQ portion of the ASCII Art Resources file.  It has a lot of 
>ASCII art in it.  And some of that art is wrapped with text, like:

[snip]

>   o  Line drawing - Such as the 3-D snowman         ..:::::::::..
>      below.  Line art is made using              ..:::::::::::::::..
>      characters for their shapes.              ..:::::: ====== :::::..

Okay, okay, that's going to be pointless to convert to HTML. Not
due to any failings in HTML itself, but due to the conceptual
problems; you've already merged two types of information into one
(text and ascii-art into one plain text document). The equivalent
would be to take a magazine layout page, save it as a GIF, and
then complain when converting it to HTML would be a bother.

The merged format may be pretty, but it isn't really useful, if
someone wants to extract text or artwork from the FAQ.

>   Once the art-text is html'ized, it's real hard to work with, unless 
>you strip the html out of it.  The html code throws offs the alignment of 
>the art-text when it's not being viewed in a web browser.

>   So when you are working on a portion of art-text that contains html 
>code, the code has to be stripped, the art-text modified, and the code 
>put back in.

Alternatively, you could reformat it like this:


o Another popular form of ASCII art is the signature. Here is a
signature which uses greyscale lettering:

.eeeeee..eeeee..eeeeee..eeeeeee..eeeeee..eeeee.eeeeeee...eeeeee..eee..eee..eee
@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@::@@@::@@@
%%%-----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%--%%%
&&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&&+&&&&&&&++&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&++&&&++&&&+&&&++&&&++&&&
*||||||*|||****||||||||*||||||***|||||**|||****||||||***|||**|||*|||**|||**|||
====!!!=!!!====!!!==!!!=!!!=!!!==!!!====!!!====!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!
:::::::#::::::#:::##:::#:::##:::#::::::#::::::#:::##:::#::::::::#:::::::::::::
......@@@.....@...@@...@...@@...@......@@.....@...@@...@@......@@@...........@


This lends itself more easily to HTML conversion:

<p>
<a name="signatures"><img src="icons/bullet.gif" alt="o"></a>
Another popular form of ASCII art is the signature. Here is a
signature which uses <a href="#greyscale">greyscale</a> 
<a href="#lettering">lettering</a>: 
</p>
<pre>
.eeeeee..eeeee..eeeeee..eeeeeee..eeeeee..eeeee.eeeeeee...eeeeee..eee..eee..eee
@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@::@@@::@@@
%%%-----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%--%%%
&&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&&+&&&&&&&++&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&++&&&++&&&+&&&++&&&++&&&
*||||||*|||****||||||||*||||||***|||||**|||****||||||***|||**|||*|||**|||**|||
====!!!=!!!====!!!==!!!=!!!=!!!==!!!====!!!====!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!
:::::::#::::::#:::##:::#:::##:::#::::::#::::::#:::##:::#::::::::#:::::::::::::
......@@@.....@...@@...@...@@...@......@@.....@...@@...@@......@@@...........@
</pre>

*shrug*

Again, the conversion to plain text is MECHANICAL, there is no
work involved, and no-one without a HTML viewer need look at the
HTML document: they can read the posted, fingered, or FTP'd
plaintext version you generate with a browser. And if you can't
handle using &lt; in place of <, a simple search/replace on
everything new that you add to the document, you have bigger
problems.

I'd prefer to browse through HTML documents with hyperlinks. When
it mentions Figlet, a click can take me to the interactive Figlet
page. When it mentions various archives, a click can take me
right there. Remember, you're trying to sell your services to the
user, in a sense. If it makes life easier for them, you win.

I guess it boils down to: do you want just "eye candy" documents
which have no extrinsic value, or a useful resource document
which might be a little less compact and less cute, but is
useful?

Of course, you can combine the two, and have it all
merged, <pre>-formatted, with anchors inside, but that'd be
really painful to edit.

Joshua
--
"There's far too much to take in here, | MIME: jsb...@acs.ucalgary.ca
 more to find than can ever be found." | WWW:  http://www.ucalgary.ca/~jsbell/
      - Tim Rice, "The Circle of Life" |

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|:::::::::::|\
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