On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 7:55 PM, John Wiegley <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>>>> Martin Blais <[email protected]> writes: > > > What's wrong with Google Docs? > > I do not trust it stay around as long as Ledger will, and I wouldn't want > to > have to scrape and convert all the text once it does disappear. Better to > pick an open, enduring format now and stick with it. > You speak as if these things are equivalent. Google Docs vs. text-based formats isn't a fair comparison: By using texinfo, you're foregoing daily (yes, daily, and I'm not exaggerating) feedback, corrections and suggestions on your documentation and in-context interaction with your users about which parts are confusing and where they suggest improvements to it--and I respond to them. It's the best experience I've ever had writing user documentation. It's an experience. It's a workflow. It's something else. These aren't the same thing. About openness: You should have nothing to worry about, here's the open, free API: https://developers.google.com/drive/v2/reference/ Here's a script that uses it to automatically download all the docs: https://bitbucket.org/blais/beancount/src/tip/src/python/beancount/docs/download_docs.py You can also click on a folder to download a zipped version of the contents if you're the owner. Takes a few seconds. You can download in OpenDocument and even .txt formats. Conversion, should it be required, should be a breeze. Nothing to worry about. And besides, do you really believe that Google would just pull the plug on Docs without a long and loud warning and an archival feature? I find the reaction from people in the OSS community interestingly puzzling and somewhat curmudgeonly. I sort-of understand it in a way: for many problems, for years, sticking with Linux and simple solutions has proved superior to many commercial solutions to many problems, at least in the small scope. And most people deal within the scope of small and medium. And we've all experience the frustrating experience of working in some nasty commercial environments. And we're attached to those homemade solutions where we feel productive. But this is a case where I'm witnessing the OSS community unable to think outside the box. Docs is measurably better for shared collaborative editing than anything else out there. It's not the same thing at all. -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
