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 > >