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Hmmm, This sounds like a standard whose time has come. Web pages that easily transform to a nice printable form, or perhaps multiple transforms. Occasionally I

by zafka 11y ago

Hmmm, This sounds like a standard whose time has come. Web pages that easily transform to a nice printable form, or perhaps multiple transforms. Occasionally I will be on a web page that has a "print format" option, but most of them suck. Now, How to monetize??? First thought is to be one of the new open science publishing platforms funded by donations and appropriate advertising.

brianclements 11y ago
I think the only way for everyone to get what they really want is to separate the "view" from the data. You can pack a lot of metadata, links, binary data (pictures) into a standardized and compressed format, then you can allow all the various mediums (web, desktop view, in-app text only, in-app pictures only, etc.) to create their own support/plugins for accessing that data package. Ship one package, view everywhere. And the plugins can be made for that medium safely from scratch. They can even simplify/allow/disallow certain categories of info as needed (allow text, disable links, don't view pictures) so that the data morphs to the needs of the medium/plugin. addendum: I would add that mediums are usually just incidental and necessary means to get to content. Why force everyone to adopt a medium (adobe binaries) to get to the real focus? The content? Instead, just package the content, and people are great and finding their own paths to it via plugins if the interface and code is open and standardized.
- brianclements 11y ago
  I went on a google quest about this topic. Mapping my way through postscript, file encoding, pdf, xml, json. I eventually found my way onto a format that was right under my nose all along that kind of does all this. epub! Can extract to plain text, web, pdf, view natively, it's comprised of layers that you can use or not use, etc. Submitted it as it's own topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10563472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10563472

by zafka 11y ago

brianclements 11y ago

I think the only way for everyone to get what they really want is to separate the "view" from the data. You can pack a lot of metadata, links, binary data (pictures) into a standardized and compressed format, then you can allow all the various mediums (web, desktop view, in-app text only, in-app pictures only, etc.) to create their own support/plugins for accessing that data package. Ship one package, view everywhere. And the plugins can be made for that medium safely from scratch. They can even simplify/allow/disallow certain categories of info as needed (allow text, disable links, don't view pictures) so that the data morphs to the needs of the medium/plugin. addendum: I would add that mediums are usually just incidental and necessary means to get to content. Why force everyone to adopt a medium (adobe binaries) to get to the real focus? The content? Instead, just package the content, and people are great and finding their own paths to it via plugins if the interface and code is open and standardized.

brianclements 11y ago
I went on a google quest about this topic. Mapping my way through postscript, file encoding, pdf, xml, json. I eventually found my way onto a format that was right under my nose all along that kind of does all this. epub! Can extract to plain text, web, pdf, view natively, it's comprised of layers that you can use or not use, etc. Submitted it as it's own topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10563472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10563472