Theodore Tso wrote: > > On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 09:00:48AM +0300, Yaakov Stein wrote: > > I would not be surprised if with my next machine I would find it impossible > > to print correctly using any of the standard utilities provided, > > and that I would be forced to write a program to do so. > > > > The machine after that will probably not have any languages I know, > > and I hope that the IETF will be able to provide (free of charge) > > a viewer with printing option. > > There may be specific deficiencies with specific operating systems > that no longer no how to print ASCII documents, in which case IETF > might need to provide (or at least point to) a viewer/editor with a > printing option. As it stands today there are plenty of simple text > editors that are available for Windows; they aren't provided by the OS > provider, so they're not installed by default, but they certainly > exist --- and, due to the simplicity of the RFC series' archival > format, they certainly would not be hard to provide.
While I participated IETF Meetings in 1995-98, I often used "pstools" to create printed copies (2-up) of RFCs and Internet Drafts for reading while travelling and during meetings (didn't have a laptop). I used a wrapping perl-script because it was a little difficult to cope with some documents (varying page lengths and no page feed control character, plus occasionally Word-corrupted quote characters). Maybe the IETF could provide a conversion page on their Web-Server that can convert RFCs and Internet Drafts on the fly from their original ASCII-form into page-formatted PDF files, something like you post an URL in a Form, it gives you back a PDF. On my office PC, I use the same simple text-editor for reading RFCs and I-Ds that I use for EMail/C/Perl/shell/config, and I do appreciate the original ASCII format of IETF documents. The ASCII format significantly facilitates quoting paragraphs from the document in Email discussion, and that is particularly helpful during development/discussion of I-Ds. -Martin _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@ietf.org https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf
