FreeBSD/ia64 5.1-BETA Hardware Notes Page Preview

[Jim Brown]

* Bruce A. Mah <bmah at FreeBSD.org> [2003-05-17 12:02]:
> If memory serves me right, Jim Brown wrote:
> 
> > <Side Note>
> > Color was fun; we should do more of that.  Note- I only changed
> > the HTML source on this page and added corresponding entries in the
> > local docbook.css stylesheet, not the SGML originals.  I just wanted to see
> > if I could get  table headings in different colors.  If you like it,
> > we should be able to work it in.  I used classes.
> > </Side Note>
> 
> Interesting work!

Thanks!


> 
> I'm going to play devil's advocate in just this one message just to
> air a couple of concerns.  Regardless, I'm glad you are working on
> this stuff.
> 
> 1.  We don't want to make the meaning of the table dependant on color
>     (especially in HTML).  Two reasons:
> 
>     o Some people have difficulty visually distinguishing colors.
> 
>     o I don't want to lose the ability to have meaningful,
>       decent-looking dead-tree versions of documents, which are
>       usually rendered in PostScript or PDF.

Right.  Color doesn't usually render well in Black&White print.  Even with
hatch/thatch/dithering schemes it just never looks good.  I fully
agree.


> 
> 2.  As you know, we try to keep the hardware notes as MI as possible,
>     so I want to make sure that your changes still fit into this
>     framework.  (Maybe the premise that we can have mostly-MI
>     release documentation is a mistake, but that's another issue.)


This is going to be the hard part.  I tried to modify the tables
but it just doesnt' work well.  With all four columns, the spacing
shrinks until it's unworkable:

http://sixshooter.v6.thrupoint.net/ia64/T01/article.html


With just one column at a time, the presentation is better,
but the underlying <para arch="foo"> structure doesn't 
support it very well:


http://sixshooter.v6.thrupoint.net/ia64/T02/article.html


With the example above, I can't get the SCSI sections into the table
without big gaps resulting from the intervening non arch="ia64" paragraphs.


I think what we ought to do here is to just try and get the material out
in some modified paragraph format for the release, then work on a
plan for re-working the MI architecture somehow.


Finally- have a look at: 

http://sixshooter.v6.thrupoint.net/ia64/WORKING/article.html

I used the  <note><title>  construction to simulate a table.
This is structured within a <para="ia64"> so it shouldn't affect
other MI sections.

This is probably the best we can do until we rethink the MI issues.
But- I'm still learning this stuff, so if you or anyone has another
suggestion, I'll be glad to follow it up.


> 
> Do you have the SGML sources for your changes available somewhere?
> I'd like to think about folding some of these back into the sources.
> How closely are you tracking the HEAD sources?


I mirror the CVS repository using 'cvs-all' (*default release=cvs),
and run my checkouts against my own tree.  I'm updating every 4 hours.
I set it up so that I could get more involved in testing -CURRENT and providing feedback,
but my other machine is now in use for something more pressing.



> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Bruce.
> 
> PS.  I marked you as the owner of the "ia64 hardware notes" task on
> the 5.1 release TODO list, so don't be surprised if you see your name
> there.  :-)


!!!  Guess I better get busy and finish this up...



Best Regards,
jpb
===

PS- Apologies to all readers of this list hoping for more technical
content on the platform- it's coming back soon!