[UCLP] Summery of course format options

[Elizabeth Krumbach]

Thanks for taking the time to research this and write it up, William!

I am going to vote for going in the direction of AsciiDoc

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 6:50 PM, William Chambers
<william at bioselement.com> wrote:
> Researched options for the format of course lessons
>
> Currently on the table are the following,
> OpenOffice Documents (.odt)
> Plain Text (.txt)
> Sphinx (.txt)
> DocBook (.xml?)
> AsciiDoc (.txt)
>
> Following are advantages and disadvantages for each. Please note that
> this is not an extensive list and may not include the obvious.
>
>
>
> OpenOffice Documents (.odt)
>
> ADVANTAGES: Pre-Installed on Ubuntu, Open Format, Ease of Editing
>
> DISADVANTAGES: Currently impossible to use with bzr or version control,
> Difficult to keep consistent styling, Any changes to styles will result
> in large amounts of labor to update previous courses.
>
> EXAMPLE: N/A (Too lazy to make one up.)
>
> SUMMERY: .odt would be very difficult to keep updated and consistent but
> is very easy for course creators.
>
>
>
> Plain Text (.txt)
>
> ADVANTAGES: Universal format, Everything from a cell phone to an
> expensive toaster can read text files. bzr and VCS systems can highlight
> per-line changes Text-to-Speech works well with it and it is more
> accessible for those with disabilities.
>
> DISADVANTAGES: Dull, sometimes hard to read, doesn't support any kind of
> styling.
>
> EXAMPLE: This E-Mail.
>
> SUMMERY: Easier to maintain then .odt but the lack of styling makes it a
> poor choice.
>
>
>
> Sphinx (.txt)
>
> ADVANTAGES: Same as those of Plain Text with the addition of styling
> using Restructured Text.
>
> DISADVANTAGES: Limited translation support, Must be compiled into .html.
>
> EXAMPLE: http://pastebin.com/f58b09150
>
> SUMMERY: Not a bad choice but it has limited use outside python
> projects. Lack of translation support is a major future problem if used.
>
>
>
> DocBook (.xml)
>
> ADVANTAGES: Universal format used by many book publishers. Very
> supported for conversion into other formats.
>
> DISADVANTAGES: XML is very difficult to write, very complex, hard to
> read and simply not user-friendly.
>
> EXAMPLE: http://pastebin.com/f7d29f1c9
>
> SUMMERY: Good choice, but the difficult syntax and lack of WYSIWYG
> Editors creates a massive barrier to entry.
>
>
>
> AsciiDoc (.txt)
>
> ADVANTAGES: Same advantages of DocBook with the addition of text editing
> and an easier to read format.
>
> DISADVANTAGES: Some may find editing .txt files hard, but I'm not sure
> there's any way around this.
>
> EXAMPLE: http://pastebin.com/f22ac7b5f
>
> SUMMERY: IMO the best choice as it gives all the advantages of DocBook
> without the difficult syntax or learning curve.
>
> --
> William Chambers <william at bioselement.com>
>
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>



-- 
Elizabeth Krumbach // Lyz // pleia2
http://www.princessleia.com