---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 15:25:02 -0500
From: Albert Henderson <NobleStation@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: Re: Cost per title... (Dan Lester)

on 2 Nov 2000 Dan Lester <dan@riverofdata.com> wrote:

> Thursday, November 02, 2000, 6:31:47 AM, you wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> ----
> How does one identify the precise location of a quoted passage that exists
> in an HTML file that has no page numbers of its own? What page numbers
> would you put in brackets?
> ----
>
> Any sort of page numbers you wanted.  You could put in a "page number"
> every fifty (or any other number) lines, for example.  This isn't
> greatly different from the way lines are numbered in some legal materials.
>
> Yes, "fifty lines" may be 40 or 100, depending on browser width, font
> size set in the browser, and so forth.  However, the page notation
> would still delineate sections, whatever you wished to call them.
>
        In other words, the author of a citation must
        go into some other author's file -- the source
        file -- and insert line numbers + line feeds??

        It might work but it sounds hackerish. Maybe the
        quoted authors will be so pleased to cited that
        they won't object ...

> ----
> In my experience with HTML, it paginates according to the size of the text
> and the size of the page. A file may use 5 pages or 8 pages depending upon
> the user's settings.
> ----
>
> Yes, that is correct.  But, as noted above page numbers (or whatever
> else you wanted to call them) could be inserted for reference or for
> more precise citations.
>
> ----
> On-screen presentation uses no page numbers. A precise reference that is
> easy with a traditional source is not possible with HTML.
> ----
>
> No, it IS possible.  It isn't frequently done now, but it certainly
> could be.  For that matter, W3C could come up with some standard to
> codify such divisions or notations.

        dream on.

> ----
> HTML output also garbles and loses lines.
> ----
>
> Nonsense.  HTML doesn't garble or lose anything.  A bad connection, a
> sickly or overloaded computer, a funky browser, or other things can do
> that. Of course those things can also mess up any other computer
> protocols that are used.

        You can blame the electric company, but I have seen
        it too often running on UPSed equipment to believe
        that it isn't a "quality" consideration.

> ----
> If one cares, one must read carefully and perhaps compare the output with
> the source file. The is a standard in publishers' production that is being
> foisted on unsuspecting readers.
> ----
>
> Of course there is no guarantee that the "source file" is right,
> either.  It could be garbled in transmission, on a bad disk, or
> otherwise compromised.  In fact, it is something like the man who has
> two clocks never knowing what time it really is.

        Your position appears to be that
        they are both valued for being
        right twice a day.  .

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000
<70244.1532@compuserve.com>