The problem here is that the requirement to produce ASCII means that many of the advantages of the pdf format are lost. Any diagrams must be replicated as ASCII art. Any formulas have to be replicated in TXT format. The result is that producing a good PDF version adds hugely to the already complex process of complying with the TXT requirements. > -----Original Message----- > From: Joel M. Halpern [mailto:joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:53 PM > To: ietf@xxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative > Format in Addition to ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC > (draft-ash-alt-formats) > > I would also observe that there is significant evidence that > there is not a real problem here. > > It seems to me that if there was a real problem with the > graphics, that folks would be publishing RFCs with PS or PDF > forms, even if those were not normative. > For the thousand RFCs starting with RFC 3000, there are 4 PS > and 4 PDF documents. In total, assuming that those are for > different documents, that is still less than 1% if those RFCs > published in that time period. > > I know some folks are vocal that there is a problem. > But, the evidence suggests otherwise. > > In contrast, the evidence suggested for judging the > experiment is going to be very limited, very subjective, and > heavily influenced by the fact that the target are folks who > are presumably particularly interested in a positive outcome. > > This experiment is a bad idea. > I am sorry that this is not "constructive" input. But > sometimes the right answer is "no." > We already have provision for people to publish pretty > pictures when they think that is helpful. > If lots of folks do that, and if we conclude that those PDFs > are more useful than the text documents, then we would have > something to discuss. > > Sure, I hate producing ASCII art. But then, I hate producing > document art in any form. The problem is not ASCII. It is > finding a good, clean, understandable, way to express ones ideas. > > Yours, > Joel M. Halpern > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > > _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf