Re: no doc format discussion, please
>>>>> Guy's Account writes:
GA> On Thu, 27 May 1999, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
>> please try not to discuss document formats on this list.
GA> Can we start a hurd documentation list then please.
I'd like to start hurd-docs@gnu.org, but to be honest, doc format
discussions will not be welcome there either.
I find that doc formats are easy enough to translate, so if one format
is clearly superior, there will soon be a translator to it.
Yes, I know about the distinct advantages of SGML, but I also know
about the distinct advantages of Pliant (http://pliant.cams.ehess.fr/)
and you don't see me arguing that GNU shouldn't use C any more. ;)
If SGML is so great, then waiting another 5 years before moving to it
won't hurt anything. GNU is not about being leading edge
technology... it's about being useful. We already learnt the hard way
that an innovative design doesn't pay off as quickly as a
non-innovative one (look at Hurd development as an example).
Worse-is-better isn't an injustice, it's a simple fact of life.
Get used to it.
Texinfo is worse than SGML. The Hurd is worse than TUNES
(http://www.tunes.org/). C is worse than Pliant.
We have to make things work before we can move on to the cool
stuff. Optimization must come after implementation.
I'm working on the Hurd because I think its basic design will survive
tremendous paradigm shifts... maybe it will eventually become TUNES
(like the way Debian GNU/Linux is becoming Debian
GNU/your-choice-of-kernel). That's all one can hope for, unless one
is content with using an obsolete system until the perfect system
magically appears.
Q.E.D.
--
Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
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