On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, der.hans wrote:

> I think the particular piece Bob was posting would've been best disbursed
> via text and then formatted for printing when it was ready to go. Others
> don't necessarily do things the same way I do. My way isn't necessarily the
> best way.

Yes, I should have done it this way, my apologies.

> Maybe we can get some of our XML gurus to explain how we can use XML to
> use open, free standards for documents.

You can run XML through an Apache processor (FOP?)
and get .pdf. We could also use troff or TeX.

That said, for one-off documents, I find WYSIWIG to
be much easier. I see professional layout systems
like FOP, troff and TeX as being best for long
pieces (books) or high-repetition stuff (reports
generated from a database). WYSIWIG is easier for
me when I'm firing from the hip, and on a deadline
for printer ready material.

> Whatever we want to encourage needs to work for on line use as well as dead
> tree format. I'd love to be rid of dead tree format, though.

Flexible, portable, cheap, high-contrast digital
paper is still a ways off. On-screen is great
for geeks like us, who virtually always have a
computer two feet in front of our noses. Not
really practical for the general public yet.