On Mon, Mar 17, 2014, Deri James wrote: > The stated goal for this is to enable doclifter to be able to > work better, so that manual pages are on the web, can be browsed > and navigated by clicking on links. Does it require doclifter to > achieve this? What if we come from the other direction and ask > "How can we make groff produce output with these desirables".
You ask an excellent question. Standing well back from the debate that's been going on, I can't help but feel it does make more sense to cast the problem in those terms. > I know Eric's opinion on the PDF standard, but it is the best form > of output, with web type navigation, to faithfully maintain the > output as the author intended. Serving PDF manuals from the web has drawbacks, possibly serious ones: it assumes an installed PDF reader, and there's significant latency involved with firing one up. > As an example, compare these two pages in a browser:- > http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man7/groff_mdoc.7.html > http://chuzzlewit.co.uk:8080/cgi-bin/WebManPDF.pl/man:/groff_mdoc In terms of sheer readability and ease of use, the PDF version wins hands down--but you knew that already. :) The PDF outline is made-to-measure for manpage navigation. I have some quibbles about the actual presentation, particularly point size in relation to line length for optimal screen reading, but that's not the point. Your demonstration is excellent. -- Peter Schaffter http://www.schaffter.ca
