Re: Summary: Comments made on 1st Run FAQL Format

Russell Nelson (nelson@crynwr.com)
Tue, 30 Nov 1993 11:09:11 EST

Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: Aydin Edguer: "Re: First cut at minimal digest format FAQ"
Previous message: Dave Schweisguth: "Re: First cut at minimal digest format FAQ"

On Fri, 26 Nov 1993 23:01:44 -0500 (EST), "Rich Kulawiec" <rsk@gynko.circ.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> Sorry to be so negative, but I'm growing tired of the series of
> standard-of-the-week crusades that seem to consist mostly of attempts
> to push FAQs into stilted formats in order to support somebody's idea
> of the The Right Way to access/archive/search them. (Hint #2: Most
> of the information out there is stored as free-form ASCII text. If you'd
> really like to do something useful, spend some time trying to figure
> out how to cope with *that* rather than trying to get the world to change.)

It's chancy to ask volunteers to do more. But how about asking them
to do the *exact* same thing they're already doing, only document it?
Good writing will result in some kind of convention, be it only
whitespace or numbering. A single paragraph could document
the "Conventions used in this document".

Then, anyone who wishes to create structured FAQs need merely read
the Conventions paragraph and write a program that creates the
structure they need.

-- 
-russ <nelson@crynwr.com>      ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav
Crynwr Software   | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support.
11 Grant St.      | 315-268-1925 (-9201 FAX)       | Quakers do it in the light
Potsdam, NY 13676 | LPF member - ask me about the harm software patents do.

Next message: Aydin Edguer: "Re: First cut at minimal digest format FAQ"
Previous message: Dave Schweisguth: "Re: First cut at minimal digest format FAQ"

[ Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive | Search Mail Archive | Authors | Usenet ]
[ 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 ]