On Wed., 28 Oct. 2020, 08:10 Andrew Campling, <andrew.campling@419.consulting> wrote:
For those of us that might prefer to read printed documents, especially documents of more than a few pages in length, page numbers are particularly help to ensure that the order of the documents does not become jumbled. Those that appear to be taking a position that pagination is obsolete might want to reflect on the importance of making IETF materials readily accessible to a wider audience, many of whom may be accustomed to printable documents with tables of contents inclusive of page numbers, pages with footers incorporating page numbers etc.
When I print a text document from Notepad I have to jump through hoops to get it to _not_ include magic page headers and footers (incl. page numbers). It does this consistently whether I set my font to 8pt courier or 18pt open-sans. It would probably work for other fonts too. Trying to include that kind of layout information in the document itself is only ever a cause for conflict.
For a tool-generated format that includes layout metadata in a portable and printable way (that, incidentally, also includes any pretty pictures in the document) there is the PDF version, which seems like a much better fit for the use case you're describing.
Aside: PDF can also be coerced to support the hot new "hyperlinking" mechanism, if we ever decide to pursue that. (Probably not in printed media, though.)
Page numbers are obsolete -- or were never relevant -- in HTML, and have been questionable in plain text since we moved from fixed-grid console and print machines.
Cheers
Matthew Kerwin
