On Sat, Feb 24, 2001 at 03:17:08AM -0000, Óskar Guðlaugsson wrote:

Heill Óskar,

> However, we can't solve all such problems. We barely have enough time
> and energy to write the material for the course itself. This course
> isn't our job. Nobody's paying us for it (at least not yet). So I'm
> sorry to say that we are, flat out, unable to make our material
> available to the whole spectrum of digital-equipment-users,
> especially not the "outer" ends of the spectrum, such as users of
> Unix, Linux, Palm Pilots, Web TVs, WAP phones, etc.

It's your list. But what I don't understand is why you want to switch formats.
You started out using formats that I, a Linux user, could read. Some (plain
text, html) I didn't have to translate. Others (MS word) I have already found
ways to translate. Now you want to switch to new formats (MS-RTF, and earlier
a font whose result (for me) would be seeing ö as q). Why keep changing?

Personally, I'd much rather you stayed with something I could use, rather
than abandoning support for the Linux users who are already in your class.
Even switching to something I potentially _can_ translate forces me to put
effort into figuring out how to translate yet another microsoft proprietary
format, and possibly write tools for the purpose; this is time and effort
I then do not have available for studying the language.

However, as you said, it's your class. If you want to make it too hard for
me to read your documents, I'll simply drop out of the class.

> No, I'm afraid that the users of "non-standard" equipment will each
> have to find solutions of their own to this problem. I believe they
> are, in most cases, used to being in that situation. That is the cost
> of using non-standard equipment, regardless of the equipment's other
> merits.
>
> I hope nobody will resent me for taking this position. It should be
> remembered, as I stated above, that this course is the result of our
> work done in our spare time. We want to contribute. If anybody can
> help us contribute, by solving this particular problem, someone with
> more knowledge of the different standards in computers (there seem to
> be many candidates), then I would be very grateful for any help from
> those parties :)


--
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens arlie@...)