RE: Last Call: 'Requirements for IETF Draft Submission Toolset' to Informational RFC

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



FYI I am an ex-Word user, now fully converted to xml2rfc.

I thought Word was a convenient way to conform to Draft style and handle
revision control but was frustrated by the toolchain.  The main problem I
found was the badly broken 'Generic Text Printer' driver which has not
worked properly for a number of versions of Word in my experience. Symptoms
include:
- unilaterally changing the paragraph width so that it outputs one character
on each line starting from some random point in the document
- unilaterally changing the fount height to a microscopic value so that text
is converted to a horizontal line in random paragraphs

Microsoft are in denial about these bugs.  Presumably there is not much call
for the Generic Text Printer. (I must admit I haven't bothered to try it in
my most recent version of Word, but I wouldn't hold my breath).

I am aware of other possible ways to get the ASCII output but they are all
just as flaky and tedious.

I'll live with the need for balanced tags (I am pretty adept at detecting
what has gone wrong by now) and some other minor irritations for the sake of
knowing that I won't end up fighting the tools when trying to get a draft
out close to the deadlines (when of course the random bugs noted above
always strike!)

I know several other authors who have defected for similar reasons.

Regards,
Elwyn

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-bounces@xxxxxxxx [mailto:ietf-bounces@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Stewart Bryant
> Sent: 08 April 2005 10:47
> To: Brian E Carpenter
> Cc: ned.freed@xxxxxxxxxxx; Bruce Lilly; Alex Rousskov; ietf@xxxxxxxx; IETF
> TOOLS discussion
> Subject: Re: Last Call: 'Requirements for IETF Draft Submission Toolset'
> to Informational RFC
> 
> I would also be interesting to know how many use Microsoft Word
> to produce drafts.
> 
> Stewart
> 
> Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> 
> > Regardless of the interesting side-discussion about 'voting',
> > what the toy shows after about a day is:
> >
> > prefer nroff: 8
> > prefer xml:  37
> > neither:      9
> >
> > which implies a few hundred abstentions, of course.
> >
> >    Brian
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ietf mailing list
> Ietf@xxxxxxxx
> https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf


_______________________________________________

Ietf@xxxxxxxx
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf

[Index of Archives]     [IETF Annoucements]     [IETF]     [IP Storage]     [Yosemite News]     [Linux SCTP]     [Linux Newbies]     [Fedora Users]