RE: [Groff] ESR in manpages versus the WEB

[Susan Jolly]

Michael D. Hobgood wrote on 12-30-2006:

>Subject two.  That [hypertext] is your personal preference.  Myself, I'm
quite  
>happy to use other forms for documentation; forms that do not invoke  
>my browser at all. 

You have my best wishes to continue in good health such that you can
continue to use the forms of documentation you are currently using.
However, one of the wonderful things about the newer electronic formats is
that they can be more easily made accessible to persons with vision loss via
means such as text-to-speech, large print or simply facilitating random
retrieval.  [Remember that almost all persons in non-Third World countries
who have vision loss acquire it after the age of 40.]

As for the place in the world of command line tools in general and document
preparation tools like groff or LaTex in particular, it is well-known that
they are considerably more accessible than GUI-based tools.   So I would say
that for this reason alone, these tools will continue to have an important
place.

To the extent that doclifter contributes to wider support for these valuable
legacy tools, Eric has already made a tremendous contribution.

Sincerely,
Susan Jolly