Many things

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri Jan 28 18:40:36 2005

>
> Randy McLaughlin <randy_at_s100-manuals.com> wrote:
>
> > - Run the result through tiff2ps(1)
> > - and finaly generate a PDF with ps2pdf(1).
>
> Could you perhaps be a little more friendly to people like me and Tony Duell
> who actually _USE_ our classic computers for our day-to-day work, including

Actually, I think there should be a special place in Hades for those who
_only_ supply documentation in 'electronic' format. I would be happy to
pay for a printed version, but far too many companies won't supply it.
They tend not to get my business. Those who only supply documentation in
some proprietary format (even worse than pdf!) lose my friends' business
as well!

> viewing classic computer documentation, and make the PostScript available
> as well, i.e., with the last step omitted?
>
> PostScript is infinitely more friendly to Classic Computers than PDF. A
> PostScript document can be easily handled by someone who has no computing
> technology younger than 1985, that's almost 20 y old, not just 10. No
> graphical operating system required (how the heck is one supposed to run
> Adobe Acrobat on a vintage command-line OS with a VT100 terminal??), just

Actually, I do have manhines with graphical displays, but AFAIK acrobat
is not available for any of them. I've certainly never seen if for the
PERQ, or for a PDP11 + I2S display, or whatever!

The thing that _really_ annoys me is people who use the pdf format when a
better idea would be to use plain text (i.e. the font and the exact
formatting are not important).


-tony
Received on Fri Jan 28 2005 - 18:40:36 GMT