"Code Sandwiches"

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> wrote in message 
news:mailman.2411.1299739219.4748.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
> On Wednesday 09 March 2011 22:18:53 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> "Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisProg at gmx.com> wrote in message
>> news:mailman.2409.1299728378.4748.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>>
>> > On Wednesday 09 March 2011 13:30:27 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> >> But why is it that academic authors have a chronic inability to 
>> >> release
>> >> any
>> >> form of text without first cramming it into a goddamn PDF of all 
>> >> things?
>> >> This is one example of why I despise Adobe's predominance: PDF is
>> >> fucking useless for anything but printing, and no one seems to know 
>> >> it.
>> >> Isn't it about time the ivory tower learned about Mosaic? The web is
>> >> more than a PDF-distribution tool...Really! It is! Welcome to the
>> >> mid-90's. Sheesh.
>> >
>> > And what format would you _want_ it in? PDF is _way_ better than having 
>> > a
>> > file
>> > for any particular word processor. What else would you pick? HTML? 
>> > Yuck.
>> > How
>> > would _that_ be any better than a PDF? These are _papers_ after all, 
>> > not
>> > some
>> > web article. They're either written up in a word processor or with 
>> > latex.
>> > Distributing them as PDFs makes perfect sense.
>>
>> They're text. With minor formatting. That alone makes html better. Html 
>> is
>> lousy for a lot of things, but formatted text is the one thing it's 
>> always
>> been perfectly good at. And frankly I think I'd *rather* go with pretty
>> much any word processing format if the only other option was pdf.
>
> I'm afraid that I don't understand at all. The only time that I would 
> consider
> html better than a pdf is if the pdf isn't searchable (and most papers 
> _are_
> searchable). And I _definitely_ don't like dealing with whatever word 
> processor
> format someone happens to be using. PDF is nice and universal. I don't 
> have to
> worry about whether I have the appropriate fonts or if I even have a 
> program
> which can read their word processor format of choice. I don't really have 
> any
> gripes with PDF at all.
>

PDF: *Complete* inability to adapt appropriately to the viewing device, 
*completely* useless page breaks and associated top/bottom page margins in 
places that have absolutely *no* use for them, no flowing layout, frequent 
horizontal scrolling, poor (if any) linking, inability for the reader to 
choose the fonts/etc that *they* find readable. Oh, and ever tried reading 
one of those pdf's that use a multi-column layout? All of this together 
makes PDF the #1 worst document format for viewing on a PC. All for what? 
Increased accuracy the *few* times it ever gets printed? Outside of 
print-shops, pdf needs to die a horrible death.