Peter Schaffter <pe...@schaffter.ca>:
> As for groff itself, and good typography, I care about them
> passionately, for reasons it would take a book to explain. We're
> all the same, I think. Together--list subscribers and those
> involved in active development--let's show a certain semantic nut
> he's wrong about the future of the printed page. :)
That makes a good rallying cry, but...
...I actually do care about good typography. I just don't find it very
relevant to the technical-documentation inadequacies I want to address.
Here's a f'rinstance.
I would dearly love to own a printed edition of Sir Richard Francis
Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights with its major defect -
absence of any paragraphing - fixed.
And on *that*, by Goddess, I'd value fine typography. And acid-free
archival paper. And a leather binding. The book as craft object and
sensual experience.
There's still a place for that; it just doesn't happen to be
anywhere near man pages.
--
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>
