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Re: [FAQ]
At 11:42 AM 10/20/1999 -0600, Tesla List wrote:
Hi Nick, All,
>Original Poster: NickandSim-at-aol-dot-com
>
>Hi Travis, All,
> I agree that ascii art is not the best. However it does
>make life a hell of a lot simpler for all concerned. As browser standards
>change and god knows what else the html wil outdate. I know all this stuff
>is supposed to be backward compatible but I had to re-code most of my site
>with the coming of IE5 and whose's to say that IE6 won't be the same. As
>most tesla coil cicuits are simple to say the least I don't see any need to
>make life harder than It has to be.
This is silly. HTML will be around for many years to come. Regardless
of the added bells and whistles, it still remains the same. I've done web sites
for years and don't recall an instance where I had to re-code a site because
a newer version of a browser came out. IE5 added the ability to save all
the link and graphics of a page to be viewed offline and because of that
feature, there are web sites that didn't name their sub-pages distinctly, so
you end up trying to save page 2 with the same name as page 1, etc. This
isn't a fault with IE5 but with webmasters not being specific enough in
titling their pages.
>Ascii art also has the advantage of being compact so that those of use with
>limited Internet access can still get our files fast - bear in mind this
>thing is gonna be the best part of 200 pages long if its all done throughly.
>If we agree that the text editor is the lowest common denominator - notepad -
>then this saves lots of messing around with fonts etc. Which really would
>screw up ascii art.
ASCII art was fine in the 1980's over Fidonet and had it's day
and I certainly had fun with Figlets many years ago, but as a
communication medium, it sucks. You cannot guarantee that
everyone will view it in a fixed Courier font, so it usually comes
out looking scrambled up. Most ASCII diagrams I've seen in the
archives are hopelessly messed up beyond recognition. It would
be *ideal* if it didn't have this view limitation as keeping the FAQ
in an all-ASCII format would be very useful to posting to the
List -and- to an appropriate Usenet newsfroup. (Just exactly
why isn't there an alt.tesla.coil.construction newsgroup?)
Alternatives would be doing the entire FAQ in MS Word Doc
format, HTML and Adobe PDF. Any one of these three formats
would permit the use of gif/jpeg graphics. You could post a
short note at intervals on the List informing the newer coilers
of a URL where they can view/download the FAQ.
I understand trying to achieve a balance with keeping the FAQ
file length small, but consider breaking it into smaller parts, if
the file size is your biggest consideration. With the scope of
building, running and de-bugging potential problems with a
TC, I don't hardly see how you could do it in "one big file"
anyways.
I would also suggest, not trying to get every detail perfect
with the FAQ as there are some areas bound to be mired
down in controversy (Corum Paper, the use of RF Chokes,
for examples). I think it wise to acknowledge them and move
on, otherwise the FAQ will never get drafted and posted.
You can make revisions and additions later on.
Don
http://www.fwpd-dot-net/dona/tesla/teslacoil.htm