Re: [Groff] Manuals in pdf format

[Miklos Somogyi]

On 27/02/2006, at 7:33 AM, Werner LEMBERG wrote:

> > - If there's a reference to page N in the text, you need to add viii
> >   to it.  What's more: you have to remember to add ... That'
> >   difficult, you know.
>
> Well, there are clickable links everywhere: table of contents,
> indices, etc..  Where exactly have you encountered problems?
>
> >    The simplest thing to do is to use 9 after viii, not 1.
>
> This is against all rules of typography.
>
>
>     Werner

I have seen quite a few pdf books/manuals that are against all rules of 
typography, e.g.

- Adobe's "pdfmark" reference manual
- Apple's "Aperture" on digital photography
- Hagen Lenke's "Graphic Converter" user's manual

and many more. They have just one running index.
Whether  they use latin/arabic mix or only arabic, is not important.

In general it is good to follow rules, most of the time they are for 
our benefit.
Sometimes circumstances change and rules need to be modified.
This "i, ii, ..., 1, 2" system was all right in the age of paper 'cause 
any-one page
had only one page number.
In the age of pdf one has two numbers to describe the same thing.
Clickable links are good, very good, two numbers for the same thing is 
perhaps not.

It is not a disaster, but what for? If one remembers that there was 
something interesting
in page 78, now he also has to remember which 78 it was.
Again: not a tragedy, again: what for?
What do I, the reader, gain by continuing the old tradition?

I can see the benefit from the writer's point of view but I think that 
the reader's considerations
should come first. Unless it places undue burden on the writer, but I 
don't think
that this is the case here.

One needs to consider that a book/manual needs to be written once, but 
will be read
many-many times by many people.
If something does not give them anything, but potentially distracts 
their attention
from the main game, even for a second, then it is better not to do it.

Miklos