[Info-vax] Online and offline VMS documentation in HTML format

[Craig A. Berry]

On 10/3/21 3:48 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2021-10-02 kl. 18:42, skrev Simon Clubley:
> 
>> Does anyone else think it would be useful for VSI to supply and
>> host HTML versions of the documentation so that you could point
>> someone directly to a section of the manual without them having
>> to download the whole manual or having to read an older version
>> of the documentation online at a third party site ?
>>
>> Simon.
>>
> 
> I kind of like the page oriented style of PDF docs. If there is
> something I'd need to sit down and read properly, I can easily
> print 10-20 pages and get an easy to read version.
> 
>  > without them having to download the whole manual...
> 
> What is the problem? I just tried a few of the PDF files from VSI,
> and it is 1-3 sec per manual, more or less instant. The Cobol Ref
> Manual (6,7 MB) took approx 1 sec.
> 
> Yes, HTML has some good sides, such as cross linking between different
> parts of the docs, but then you have to write/design your docs that way
> from the start. But I do not think this particular question is one of
> the major ones for VSI to care about right now.

It's not an either/or situation.  Professional tech writers will most
likely be using XML in a DocBook schema, which can readily be
transformed to PDF, HTML, and numerous other formats.  The anchor tags
could be automatically generated for section headings or even paragraphs
to provide the direct links that Simon was asking about.  And yes, it
would be nice to have such links.