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Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 13:44:42 +0100
From: Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr>
To: <jari.aalto@ntc.nokia.com> (pgp prefered ssjaaa@uta.fi | pgp -fka)
Cc: mrb@Eng.Sun.COM, xemacs-beta@xemacs.org, tm-en@chamonix.jaist.ac.jp
Subject: Re: Re3: Building gnus-art-mime.elc
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>>>>> "Jari" == Jari Aalto <jaalto@tre.tele.nokia.fi> writes:

    Jari>     Once the authors write it in SGML, and provide the SGML
    Jari> (even from ftp somewhere, not needed to include with Emacs
    Jari> distribution) they can run the SGML text through filters
    Jari> that do convert the text into any format.

More or less correct. I still think the other way round is better.

    Jari> I don't want to install TeX or the kind, because they're old
    Jari> and not usefull if we talk about portability. The SGML is
    Jari> future, although very new currently.

Old? OK, I'll conceed that one. Not useful wrt portability? Now where
did you get that one? I've got a TeX system installed here on several
brand of UNIX systems, on PCs and Macs. Now you just take the same
source document, process it, and you will get the exact same output
from every one of them. If that is not portability, then please give
me your definition of the word.

    Jari> If I would use TeX, it means that I have to learn it, or
    Jari> learn texinfo or learn Latex or... that is not needed if I
    Jari> only learn SGML and DTD, I don't have to learn anything
    Jari> else, I just the existing filters to prduce .texi or .html
    Jari> or RTF or .ps or....

Personally I found learning LaTeX surprisingly easy, when you consider
what it can do. True, the first 2 weeks, you basically have to have
the manual right by your side, but then, I don't think it is any
different for SGML.

    Jari> So, if someone is serious in distributing documentation, the
    Jari> SGML is the right road, any other road is a small and bumby
    Jari> and not portable, when we head to the future.

I hate to say that, but that sounds like gratuitous assertions to
me. Currently the thing texinfo really lacks is figure handling. But
note it is a shortcoming of texinfo, not TeX. Considering texinfo docs
were supposed to be turned into info files displayed in Emacs, and
Emacs could not display images, that was fine. Now, I don't think
extending texinfo to handle images would be very difficult, but that
would make info files not portable across Emacs platforms, and I don't
think we need another major source of incompatibilities.

    Jari> The SGML is becomming an enterprise/company standard in
    Jari> documentation and the Emacs should also keep in the nerve of
    Jari> the time.

That may be the case, although I have yet to see any of  our
industrial contacts use it (most of them either use M$ products
or... TeX/LaTeX...).

    Jari> ...sure, we can all sit back and stick to the old way, but I
    Jari> wanted to bring to your attention that SGML provides more
    Jari> than any other old system.

Needless to say I don't agree there. I have not encountered yet a
"killer-functionnality" that would make me change from my "old" TeX
system.

No flames intended though. The fact is if that you need SGML
documents, it is always possible to use an *existing* filter to create
them from texinfo. Now if you volunteer to write the SGML2texinfo or,
even better from my pov, SGML2LaTeX filter, then OK, that would suit
me. ;-)

Richard.

-- 
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| Richard Cognot           | Proceed, with fingers crossed... |
|                          |           /\^^/\                 |
| <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> |             `'                   |
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| http://www.ensg.u-nancy.fr/~cognot                          |
|-------------------------------------------------------------|

