[10449] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: increasing use of the .PDF format
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Grant White)
Wed Jul 24 20:11:04 1996
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 16:17:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: Grant White <ulgw@dewey.newcastle.edu.au>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
At 06:52 PM 7/23/96 -0500, Peter Graham, RUL wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries
>
>I have to respond to Grant White and the Newcastle, Australia trainers,
>especially to someone who quotes a Seamus Heaney poem I'd
>just read the night before:
>"......and the man climbed back
>Out of the marvellous as he had known it."
>Lightenings VIII
I am glad you like my sig, there is a recording of Seamus reading it on The
Internet Poetry archive at http://sunsite.unc.edu/dykki/poetry/home.html.
If you are interested.
>
Just a couple of points. Firstly, It is my view about .pdf and I do not
speak for my colleagues here as was made fairly clear in my original mail.
In fact many here at Newcastle take exactly the opposite view.
>But Grant White suggests that it is an "obstructive mechanism" and then turns
>for his solution to HTML.
My argument for HTML grows out of the pre-supposition that if you are
accessing material on the web you are already using a browser of some
description which deals with HTML to greater or lesser degree. Additional
viewing devices which must be acquired and installed and then used as an
adjunct to the browser, do indeed place obstructions in the way of users who
can't make use of the additional mechanism.
The
>Newcastle view appears to argue for stasis; is that where they want to
>be in a couple of years (pretending that the marvellous remains here
>on the ground, not in that ship in the air, to refer back to the Heaney poem)?
The quote from the Lightenings refers to the contrasting perceptions between
the mortal and the fantastical and our human habit of taking what we have
for granted. The near drowned man, alien to the environment in which he
finds himself, does not pretend that the world he becomes caught up in is
marvellous. From his viewpoint it is marvellous. Here is the entire section
(which is in itself part of the larger work).
The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.
The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,
A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
'This man can't bear our life here and will drown,'
The abbot said, 'unless we help him.' So
They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it.
You are right to assert that " First, any
advance on the ascii character set will introduce standards, implementations
and new mechanisms that might seem obstructive. Consider even HTML,
for...." I simply suggest that we adhere to the KISS principle and
encourage information to be provided in a simple, stable and useful format
which is accessible by the largest possible audience.
Cheers,
GW
>
Grant White
University of Newcastle
Central Coast Campus Information Resource Centre
ulgw@dewey.newcastle.edu.au
Ph: 043-484022
Fax: 043-484215
"......and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it."
Lightenings VIII
Seamus Heaney
