Re: [msysGit] Re: WIP: asciidoc replacement

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:

> On Tue, 2 Oct 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
>> 
>> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> writes:
>> 
>> > So here it is: a perl script that does a good job on many .txt files 
>> > in Documentation/, although for some it deviates from "make man"'s 
>> > output, and for others it is outright broken.  It is meant to be run 
>> > in Documentation/.
>> >
>> > My intention is not to fix the script for all cases, but to make 
>> > patches to Documentation/*.txt themselves, so that they are more 
>> > consistent (and incidentally nicer to the script).
>> 
>> How you spend your time is up to you, but I need to wonder...
>> 
>>  - Is "man" format important for msysGit aka Windows
>>    environment?  I had an impression that their helpfile format
>>    were closer to "html" output.
>
> I wanted something that can output both "man" and "html" output (and
> if some suck^Wlos^Wtexi-fan wants to provide it, also a "texi" or
> even "info" backend).

And you have not even talked about print.  The thing is that high
quality output is a lot of work (including design and design
decisions) for _every_ _single_ backend.  If the only target were
"man" and text, then one would be better off writing as groff source
and be done.

We really can't afford another time sink.  That nobody can actually
solve structural problems ("how do we include the man pages as an
appendix in the user manual?") also implies a waste of time, but at
some point of time people just throw up their hands and give up in
disgust.

You propose a larger time sink where people won't be forced to give
up.  But we really don't want to waste time reinventing the wheel.  It
would be better spent communicating with the wheelbuilders.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum