On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 9:45 AM, Christopher Duncombe Rae - NOAA Affiliate <
christopher.duncombe.rae at noaa.gov> wrote:
> LaTeX would get my vote every time.
>
The "problem" with LaTeX is that is it both:
A little to "document" oriented - i.e. not really a data structure
and
Really a language, so anything can be re-defined, making it next to
impossible to translate in the general case.
That being said, if you're disciplined about how you use it it can be a
fine option.
> RST
>
RST, anyway, allows application-specific directives, to could be used
pretty well for a situation like this.
Also, we could use different things for the main standards doc and the
standard name list, - -the latter being more structured data than a
document.
-CHB
> or Markdown are a little too simple for a complicated document ultimately
> destined for hard copy publication. I would definitely stay well clear of
> `binary coded' formats like Word or OpenOffice. Although they have
> versioning features built in, these are not amenable to distributed
> collaboration in the way that git repositories makes possible. I do not
> know enough about YAML or JSON to comment, never having used them in
> documents.
>
> On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 12:28 PM, Chris Barker <chris.barker at noaa.gov>
> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 8:24 AM, Christopher Duncombe Rae - NOAA
>> Affiliate <christopher.duncombe.rae at noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>>> Another point which you did not stress is that with a revision tracking
>>> system like git / github, the evolution of the document can be tracked and
>>> if necessary reverting to an earlier version is almost trivial.
>>>
>>
>> Yes -- a great feature.
>>
>> But it requires that you use a document format that is amenable to
>> diff-ing and merging. i.e a simple hard to break text format.
>>
>> Structured text markup may be the best: ReStructured Text or Markdown
>> LaTeX is pretty good.
>> A general markup language like YAML or JSON could be good, too, if tehre
>> is a tool for making it into nice html/pdf, etc documents.
>> XML can be done, but is ugly and painful
>>
>> MS-Word, OpenOffice, and the like make it pretty much impossible.
>>
>> Was a format settled on in the last discussion about all this?
>>
>> -Chris
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
>> Oceanographer
>>
>> Emergency Response Division
>> NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice
>> 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
>> Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception
>>
>> Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
>>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> --
> =======================================================================
> Dr. Christopher M. Duncombe Rae c <deirdre.byrne at noaa.gov>
> hristopher.duncombe.rae at noaa.gov
> Oceanographer / Data Scientist
> IOOS/NOAA, Suite 1225, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
> Tel: +1-301-427-2450 Fax: +1-301-427-2073
>
--
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
Emergency Response Division
NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception
Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
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