X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 110f55,be7ecceadeff64b8 X-Google-Attributes: gid110f55,public X-Google-Thread: fbb9d,be7ecceadeff64b8 X-Google-Attributes: gidfbb9d,public X-Google-Thread: f996b,be7ecceadeff64b8 X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-03 16:44:37 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!xlink.net!xlink100!subnet.sub.net!flatlin!flyer.GUN.de!rs1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de!zib-berlin.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!netmbx.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.sprintlink.net!sashimi.wwa.com!gagme.wwa.com!not-for-mail From: jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell) Newsgroups: rec.arts.ascii,alt.ascii-art,alt.binaries.pictures.ascii Subject: Talk: Should I html'ize the FAQ? Date: 3 Sep 1994 18:44:37 -0500 Organization: University Computing Services (The University of Calgary) Lines: 130 Sender: boba@gagme.wwa.com Approved: boba@wwa.com Message-ID: <34b1p5$dn9@gagme.wwa.com> References: <33tklt$i5k@gagme.wwa.com> <340s90$hj8@gagme.wwa.com> <34975f$ifl@gagme.wwa.com> <34af74$5na@gagme.wwa.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gagme.wwa.com Xref: nntp.gmd.de rec.arts.ascii:1686 alt.ascii-art:14134 In article <34af74$5na@gagme.wwa.com>, Bob Allison wrote: > >Collin Forbes wrote: >> >>Joshua Bell (jsbell@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 >>< > escapes needed to pass "<" and ">" through the html parser, >>yes, even in

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:

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
@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@@@@@@:@@@::@@@::@@@
%%%-----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%----%%%----%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%-%%%--%%%--%%%
&&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&&+&&&&&&&++&&&&&++&&&++++&&&&&&&++&&&++&&&+&&&++&&&++&&&
*||||||*|||****||||||||*||||||***|||||**|||****||||||***|||**|||*|||**|||**|||
====!!!=!!!====!!!==!!!=!!!=!!!==!!!====!!!====!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!=!!!==!!!==!!!
:::::::#::::::#:::##:::#:::##:::#::::::#::::::#:::##:::#::::::::#:::::::::::::
......@@@.....@...@@...@...@@...@......@@.....@...@@...@@......@@@...........@

*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 < 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,

-formatted, with anchors inside, but that'd be
really painful to edit.

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