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From: boba@wwa.com (Bob Allison)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.ascii,alt.ascii-art,alt.binaries.pictures.ascii
Subject: Talk: Should I html'ize the FAQ?
Date: 3 Sep 1994 19:29:29 -0500
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 <34af74$5na@gagme.wwa.com> <34b1p5$dn9@gagme.wwa.com>
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Joshua Bell <jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca> wrote:
>
>In article <34af74$5na@gagme.wwa.com>, Bob Allison <boba@wwa.com> wrote:
>>
>>   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.              ..:::::: ====== :::::..
>>
>>   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.

   Having everything laid out so that there's no wrapped text would work, 
but it's not as pleasing.

>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?

   I want both.  I want eye candy with links to everything: internal and 
external, FTP, Gopher, and WWW sites.

>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.

   That's what I've been saying.  I guess I want somebody to tell me how 
that can be done.  I need a way to de-html it so I can work on the 
art-text, than re-html it for use.

   Oh well, I may html it as a one shot and see if people like it enough 
to figure out how to do it easily.  This discussion should have been sent 
to the www groups as well.

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