From hgfernan@lsi.MaPsOn.usp.br Tue Aug 2 11:06:55 2005
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 15:14:52 -0000
To: "Peter Jay Salzman"
Subject: Re: Interest in gdb documentation
From:
Hello Peter,
thanks for one more nice and informative text.
Sorry for not answering sooner. We've got a tough course to give, one in
which your gdb documentation gave a good help.
Concerning your question of why LaTeX, the answer is: your material is so
nice and deep that it would be interesting to have it printed -- i guess
webpages are better for short texts.
Since printing HTML is (at least for me :(( ) a lottery, could you please
suggest a browser (or any other tool) that produces good printed pages
when applied to your documentation ?
Best regards,
Hilton
P.S.: please follow me in our intercultural moment. :)
My grandparents were from Spain, so "hola" really applies to me.
However, in Brazil people speaks Portuguese and we´re not as familiar to
Spanish as we should. Unfortunately, that includes myself: my Spanish is
very rudimentar, more like Portunol; our analog to Spanglish here. :)
The informal compliments here are "Oi", similar to "hi"; or "Ola'!", a
literal translation of "Hello!" More modern compliments can also be "E
ai'!", that we can think of as similar to "what's up?" That if Bugs Buny
is still modern. :) A really modern spelling would be "E ae?" -- that's
the one teenage bloggers use.
That ends (this is a promise :))) our intercultural moment.
On 7/25/05, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> Hola Hilton,
>
> On Mon 25 Jul 05, 3:30 AM, hgfernan@lsi.usp.br said:
> > Hello!
> >
> > First of all thanks a lot for your many interesting, clear and complete
> > documentation.
> >
> > I'm from Univ S. Paulo, Brazil, and I agree: yours is the most complete
> > GDB available in the .Net.
>
> My pleasure! I'm glad you find it useful. Those pages were written out of
> my own frustration in lack of comprehensive GDB tutorial. I spent a looong
> time writing it.
>
> > For me it's more like a book, than some webpages. So, if you don't mind,
> > i think many of your readers would benefit from having it printed.
> >
> > So, my question is: do you have your GDB doc available in, say, SGML's
> > DocBook ? Maybe it was written in LaTeX ?
> >
> > If you wrote it directly as HTML, i'd like to ask you permission to
> > convert it to LaTeX, that i'm more acquainted to.
>
> It was written directly directly in HTML. I specifically chose HTML over
> other forms for a few reasons.
>
> First of all, my favorite method of writing is LaTeX. I use LaTeX for
> everything from resumes to letters (actually, I can't stand OpenOffice).
>
> However, I chose NOT to use LaTeX for a few reasons. The number one reason
> is hyperlinking. I use hyperlinking for a few reasons:
>
> 1. Sample code
> 2. Optional exercises to help facilitate learning.
> 3. Mandatory exercises to illustrate concepts that I didn't want to spell
> out for the reader (sometimes, figuring stuff out on your own is the best
> way to learn).
> 4. Definition of CS terms that would be too far left field to define.
> Wikipedia is GREAT for that.
>
> With a LaTeX document, you typically get a postscript, pdf, or dvi file.
> Hyperlinking is useless in ps and dvi. And frankly, I have more control
> with PHP/CSS than with LaTeX. Thus, LaTeX was ruled out. I really had a
> more interactive tutorial in mind, so HTML really seemed to be the best
> choice. Besides, I think latex2html is really ugly.
>
> As for SGML, well, I love the concept of SGML. However, the reality is that
> writing is painful in it. I've written 3 documents for TLDP (Linux Gamers
> Howto, Debian Jigdo Howto and Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide
> (LKMPG)). I find myself concentrating more on Docbook than on the actual
> content. The paradox of SGML is that it "frees" the author from markup.
> But like Java, it doesn't fulfill its promise. The author is obligated to
> compose text in a very convoluted, verbose and overly strict manner.
>
> As long as my GDB pages weren't going to be LDP documents, there was no way
> in HECK I was going to use Docbook. :) Note that the LKMPG was originally
> written in latex. LDP told me that they would NOT accept latex submissions
> any longer, so to keep that document current, I hate to convert it to
> Docbook. What a waste of 3 days...
>
> Anyhow, I think my GDB pages would lose some of what makes them so special
> and unique in printed form. You can convert them to LaTeX if you like, but
> realize two things:
>
> 1. I do feel like the reader would be losing something by not having links
> to external information.
>
> 2. The pages are under ACTIVE development. Sometimes they change daily,
> sometimes weekly. The LaTeX source would quickly be out of date, and I
> suspect that any "maintainer" would quickly get bored trying to keep his
> version current with the web pages.
>
> So, I don't recommend it, but you can certainly convert to LaTeX if you
> like! However, the only reason I can think of that would make LaTeX
> plausible would be for people who don't have access to the web!
>
> If you don't mind, could you tell me the reason behind converting from HTML
> to a different format? Perhaps if I understood the problem better, I'd be
> able to recommend a better alternative.
>
> Sincerely,
> Pete
>
>