From: "Tim Bird" <tbird AT caldera DOT com>
Message-Id: <9703271338.ZM5678@caldera.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 13:38:54 -0700
In-Reply-To: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris@blackwidow.saultc.on.ca>
        "Re: [opendos] Wishlist v2.0" (Mar 27, 11:15am)
References: <Pine DOT LNX DOT 3 DOT 95 DOT 970327111151 DOT 186H-100000 AT capslock DOT com>
To: OpenDOS <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: [opendos] Wishlist: HTML format docs
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Mike A. Harris wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, yeep wrote:
>
> > > > OD faster than W95.
> > > A good idea would be use a hypertext format like INFO but modify it to
> > > allow the use of images/sound..or jsut HTML and compress it to save HD
> > > space, and have help de-compress as needed
> >
> > HTML is great!
> > I've heard Windows 97 will be using it instead of the normal Windows help.
> > And the driver stuff is also very cool, kinda like X-windows Window
> > Managers.
>
> Yes, I must agree.  Due to the popularity of the WWW, and of the
> GUI browsers that are out there, I recommend that all future
> online documentation for OpenDOS (or anything else for that
> matter) be distributed as HTML.  A normal browser could read it
> then.  The only thing that really needs to be thought about is
> how the compression/decompression of the HTML is going to work to
> save space.  The browser will probably have to be modified to
> accept a type something like:
>
> Content-type: octet-stream/html-zip
>
> Or something like that.  Then UNZIP is called transparently and
> the page is viewed.
>
> What does everyone else think?
>
I absolutely, positively, 100% agree with this.  (Ok, "me too!")

HTML is now a de-facto standard for publishing information.  Viewers
are ubiquitous (and showing no signs that they will diminish in the
future), and the presentation capabilities are sufficient for almost all
tasks.

Whatever other format documentation comes in, it should ALWAYS be available
also in HTML.

The only other standard which is more universally readable is ASCII text,
which is absent the formatting and hyper-link benefits of HTML.
I would encourage all OpenDOS developers to generate documentation in HTML
format.  (I've noticed that this is starting to happen already:  Allegro
docs come in HTML format now)

Tim Bird