On 12 Oct 2001 13:45:08 -0400, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:

>  It's funny that you first hear lots of stories about unstability, but when
>you try yourself, you don't see any.

Well, I DID try it myself, and I suffered from system instability.

>: For what it's worth, I would prefer help files written in plain HTML,
>: over the Microsoft "enhanced" html-help system.
>
>  Why? They take more space and are more difficult to navigate. Of course
>a HTML version is good as an alternative, but not as the only solution.

Why? Because I can actually access those files on my system, without
adding a huge amount of buggy Microsoft software, that makes my system
unstable. Of course, plain html is more bulky and the navigation is a
bit more awkward, but it *DOES* work on my system.


>: An Adobe Acrobat
>: document would also be better than Microsoft's html-help.
>
>  How so? PDF is more difficult to navigate and you have a lot less options
>to configure how it looks. And does it support URLs?

Once again, I would pick this format over html-help, because it at
least runs smoothly on my system, doesn't require a 64 Meg OS and
browser upgrade, and it doesn't cause any instability on my system. I
think it does support URL's, but I'm not really sure about that.

>: In fact, a word processor document would have been better.
>
>  This is even worse than a PDF. You just *can't* navigate a document.

True, it is worse than PDF in some ways, but it is still better than a
format that my system can't access, without the problems that come
with html-help. 

As for not being able to "navigate a document", and I assume you mean
a word processor document in particular, you happen to be wrong. I can
actually search for keywords easier in a word processor document, than
I can with a dedicated help file system. Isn't searching considered
navigation? I can also turn to any page in the word processor document
I choose. Isn't that navigation?

>: Last but not least, I would rather have one, large, plain,
>: ascii, tezt file - instead of html help. 
>
>  *puke*

What's the matter? Choking on your html-help?

Remember, there are GOOD REASONS that the US Justice Department, as
well as legal officials in other countries, not to mention millions of
computer users worldwide are upset with Microsoft. One of them happens
to be Microsoft's bundling of the OS with its browser. One can't even
install a new Microsoft browser without also drastically rearranging
the underlying OS.

What's worse, the POV-Team has seen to it that I can't run the latest
version of POV-Ray without also installing a certain buggy, high
security risk, grossly bloated, 64 Meg (when still compressed),
"web-browser"  package. 

All I want to do is some 3D rendering, and be able to view some
documentation for the rendering software. I shouldn't need the IE4
albatross to do that.

Later,
Glen

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