Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:44:59 +0200 From: "Valentin Bud" <valentin.bud@gmail.com> To: "Ian Smith" <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> Cc: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, Gonzalo Nemmi <gnemmi@gmail.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: man -t odd page size Message-ID: <139b44430810230144j6001c244ndc3d57102d22d9d3@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20081023174911.P4254@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20081023035928.C55AC1065738@hub.freebsd.org> <20081023174911.P4254@sola.nimnet.asn.au>
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hello, what do you know about this site: http://www.metricamerica.com/. i don't remember where i have read that America is going to apply the SI (ess eye) unit system. so things are going to change maybe even the A4 papersize. a good day, v On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 10:37 AM, Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> wrote: > On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:35:25 -0200 Gonzalo Nemmi <gnemmi@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Wednesday 22 October 2008 10:38:40 pm Polytropon wrote: > > [..] > > Polytropon: thanks for pdfman script - but does 'pdfman ipfw' work for > you? Here the 'overprinting' is misaligned in gv, while others are ok. > > > > I know this is not the best idea, but it should be accomplishable > > > without many problems. A better idea would be to write a simple > > > filter that convert the man page (including formatting characters) > > > into LaTeX source and then run it through pdflatex. > > > > Exactly .. you got it just the way I wanted .. after your explanantion, > the > > question _begs_ to be asked: do we, citizens of ISO 216 adopting > countries, > > have to walk that cumbersome path in order to get something as simple as > an > > ISO compliant document?? > > > > Shouldn't it be the other way around??? > > > > Does an inmensily huge majority have to walk the extra mile in order to > get an > > ISO compliant document whereas a small minority benefits from having non > ISO > > complaint default formats??? > > Gonzalo: shouldn't that be 'the extra kilometre?' :) > > Well, a quarter of the people on this planet live in China, so by your > theory shouldn't the FreeBSD lists, docs and code all be in Chinese? > > I doubt an 'immensely huge majority' of FreeBSD systems are located > outside the US (data at http://www.bsdstats.org/freebsd/countries.php > notwithstanding, reckoning Australia to have the most FreeBSD users :) > > > I, for once, would pretty much like to know the logic behind that > decision. > > It's not logic, nor even a decision, but simply a matter of tradition. > > > > > and on a side note: will we ever get to see ISO 216 A4 as the > default > > > > choice for output instead of not-standard, only usefull in the US > but > > > > useless in the rest of the whole world "letter" page size and the > > > > likes??? > > I've yet to run into any printing or display software that didn't offer > a wide choice of formats, including A4 and many other A* sizes, so what > any particular software chooses as its 'default' scarcely matters. > > > > You're getting my thoughts, man. :-) I'd like to see this happen, > > > too, but I don't think the developers of FreeBSD and all the fine > > > applications will say goodbye to their Letter, Legal, Exec etc. > > > paper formats. A4 isn't a DIN standard anymore, its ISO for many > > > years now, and unlike Letter, it has the ability to be scaled > > > (to half size, to quarter size, to double size) easily. Today, > > > the manual replacement of many different settings is needed to > > > get a system A4 compliant. > > > > > > Greetings from Germany, where A4 is the standard for more than > > > a century now. =^_^= > > > > I really hope they do, or at least, start contemplating the fact that > ISO > > standards are usefull as a whole or are not usefull at all .. > > That's not true at all; there's no 'all or nothing' about standards. > What actually works and is adopted in the real world determines that. > > Ask yourself: how come the world uses TCP/IP for internet communications > rather than the OSI X.200-X.219 suite? How come we're still using SMTP > plus a pile of RFCs to deliver email rather than the X.400-X.420 suite? > > Apart from SNMP and its use of (a subset of) the ASN.1 / BER notation, > and the X.500-X.521 directory services model to the extent of X.501 > certificates, not much of the massive CCITT / OSI / ISO 'standards' have > ever entered common usage, most being a camel designed by committee. > > In '91 I bought three 'fascicles' (volumes) of the CCITT Blue Book for > the best part of A$500, then convinced it was the way things would go. > I was entirely wrong :) but I don't regret that study for ASN.1 alone. > > > Gretings from Argentina, where A4 is the standard from 1943. > > > > And yes .. so are the metric system, kilograms, litres, etc :) > > I suspect the Yanquis will abandon letter, legal etc paper sizes around > the same time they jettison pounds and ounces, feet and inches, gallons > and pints .. that is, you probably shouldn't be holding your breath :) > > cheers, Ian > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
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