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the best way to have and edit your own web page in dos (Announce)

posted by rr Homepage E-mail, Berlin, Germany, 09.02.2024, 17:06

> > Why do you want PDF at all?
>
> My documentation files are quite large and I think hyperlinks will be a
> nice feature (it's also been requested by users). Most DOS documentation
> is pretty sparse and hyperlinks aren't really needed. PDF and HTML seem to
> be the only widely-accepted standards for documents with hyperlinks. I
> know there are also options for creating things like on-line help, but
> that's not really the same thing as documentation.
Thanks for explaining. :-)

> > What's the name of this converter?
>
> It's called "PDF Version Converter" and is available at
> nicepdf.com/products. I've
> asked them about the problems I'm having through the web site with no
> response (which doesn't surprise me).
Ok

> > Indeed. Halibut always creates PDF version 1.3 files. (see
> >
> bk_pdf.c#l686)
> >
> > You can create PDF version 1.0 files with a text editor. Yes, it's
> > possible, but no fun. Details can be found in this series of articles:
>
> > ...
>
> I know it's possible, but don't want to go there. It's also possible to
> create web pages with a text editor, and in fact my web site
> bretjohnson.us is done that way. It was
> a little painful, but not too bad (the site is just text and some tables,
> except for the donation option at the bottom). PDF is more complicated
> than HTML and I don't want to learn it if I don't have to. There are
> enough automation tools available today that I think what I'm looking for
> should already exist.
>
> I've already looked at the PDF standard, and really don't want to go down
> the road of doing it with a text editor. For a simple, "Hello, World"
> level of document that may be OK, but not a complicated document. And even
> if I did that, if I also wanted HTML I would need to do it all over again.
Point taken. To be honest, I expected such answer from you, but I wrote my reply having all other readers of this forum in mind. :-)

> I could also just give up and accept that I can't generate PDF 1.0
> documents in today's world, but I really don't want to do that either.
> Adobe itself is the one who created the Acrobat DOS Reader, even though
> hardly anybody uses it any more. I know there are other ways of viewing
> PDF in DOS, but it should be possible to use the original software that was
> specifically designed to do it.
"it should"

> > Halibut is FOSS. You "just" need to strip the PDF version 1.3 features
> down
> > to version 1.0.
>
> I know it's possible, but it's not something I think I should even need to
> do. It should already be an option in Halibut. In addition to
"it should"

:lol2:

By saying "it should", the world doesn't change. It only changes by doing.

> modifying/forking Halibut I would also need to change my method of creating
> source documentation which I've already done once (from WordPerfect to
> Word). I may need to do it again, but really don't want to. I would
> rather use my time to write programs instead of learning a new method of
> writing documentation.
I totally understand.

> > Further discussion about this idea is probably worth a separate topic.
>
> Possibly, but I think it's also related to creating HTML documents in DOS.
> At a high level, PDF and HTML are sort of trying to accomplish the same
> goal -- allow users to view documents and jump around in them.
I just meant, we should not hijack turboblack's announce thread for further discussion on the topic of creating PDF-1.0 documents.

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