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PDFs are horrible as eBooks, but in a manual I prefer the fidelity of a PDF than the reflowing of an ePUB, or the fickleness, slowness, and potential unavailabi
by ASalazarMX 6y ago
PDFs are horrible as eBooks, but in a manual I prefer the fidelity of a PDF than the reflowing of an ePUB, or the fickleness, slowness, and potential unavailability of a web page.
A well structured and correctly indexed PDF is a godsend, because you just open the table of contents, quickly locate what you're looking for, click and there is your answer. As I said, IBM excels at writing documentation. Every language has a Language Reference manual, and a Programmer's Guide manual. The first is for reference, the second is to learn how to use it, including examples.
Don't take my word for it, you can check out, for example, the COBOL manuals here: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.1?topic=languages-cobol https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.1?topic=languages-cobol
- ghaff 6y agoI think it depends. For something well-structured like a cookbook I'd prefer PDF in most cases. But it really varies. For example I find most guidebooks do a decent job of Kindle these days and have actually switched over to a significant degree because it's really useful to have everything on my phone.
- afiori 6y agofor this specific use case a single html file that you open in the browser might be the best option (at least php offer that option and I appreciated it).