The short-form week of 11–17 Aug 2014

18 Aug 2014; last modified 10 Sep 2014

The week in review, 140 characters at a time.

This document was created automatically from my archive of my Twitter stream. Due to limitations in the Twitter API and occasional glitches in my archiving system, it may not be 100% complete.

In a conversation that started on Wednesday at 08:49pm

Have (almost surely) decided the next release of my DocBook toolchain (XSLT 2.0/HTML5) will require XProc, abandon XSL FO.—@ndw

@ndw I've been out of the XML loop for a year or so - I am curious - why abandon XSL-FO?—@EileenOttawa

@EileenOttawa Working group disbanded. Locus of interest/effort clearly CSS.—@ndw

@ndw Woah! Interesting. I have indeed been under a rock! Thanks much—@EileenOttawa

@ndw How will you get to PDF from XML? @EileenOttawa—@webbr

@webbr @EileenOttawa DocBook XML → "for-print" HTML → HTML+CSS formatter → PDF.—@ndw

@ndw @EileenOttawa Thank you for the details. What's the tool in the chain that gets you to PDF from HTML+CSS?—@webbr

@webbr @EileenOttawa I've tested both PrinceXML (oh, the irony) and AntennaHouse's formatter. There are probably others and surely will be.—@ndw

@ndw @EileenOttawa Do you think that there will soon be a free tool for that link in the chain? At this point, I rely on fop to get to PDF.—@webbr

@webbr @EileenOttawa I expect so. Might be already. Something that rivals fop shouldn't be too difficult.—@ndw

“@ndw: @webbr @EileenOttawa DocBook XML → "for-print" HTML → HTML+CSS formatter → PDF.” @CMaudry sounds familiar? ;)—@wohnjalker

@wohnjalker @ndw @webbr @EileenOttawa The only (enterprise ready) HTML+CSS processor I heard of is @AntennaInfo. Any open source alt?—@CMaudry

@CMaudry @ndw @webbr @EileenOttawa @AntennaInfo how about printing to PDF from your web browser? ;-P—@wohnjalker

@ndw So docbook without print output. Something about lead balloons?—@dpawson

@dpawson No, print output w/XHTML+CSS. Web output won't produce good print, but developer energy is in CSS paged media (vs FO certainly).—@ndw

@ndw Hope you're patient Norm.—@dpawson

@dpawson @ndw at this very moment I'm writing tests for GCPM :)—@dauwhe

@dauwhe @ndw http://t.co/2VgrJha4nKK? Guesses when it might get to PR?—@dpawson

@dpawson @ndw Hoping for last call this autumn, then we'll see.—@dauwhe

[big shift] MT @ndw: Have (almost surely) decided next release of my DocBook toolchain (XSLT 2.0/HTML5) will require XProc, abandon XSL FO—@jeffsonstein

@ndw *Abandon* FO?!? /runs away screaming—@sgmlguru

@sgmlguru It's an experiment. I could be persuaded it's bad, but bet CSS paged media better than fop any day now. Commercial soln already.—@ndw

@ndw It's bad. ;-)—@sgmlguru

@sgmlguru Because?—@ndw

@ndw Every time you use CSS for print formatting, a kitten dies. (In other words, I'm *used to* FO.)—@sgmlguru

In a conversation that started on Monday at 07:06pm

Dang it. I have a toolchain that still relies on FO. I can't just rip it out, I have to make it work in the new workflow. #everythingishard—@ndw

@ndw When you can swap out FO and drop in XSLT+CSS, that is the time to drop FO Norm? You know it makes sense :-)—@dpawson

@ndw lots of people still use FO, you know—@laurendw

In a conversation that started on Friday at 10:58am

That thing where your employer forces you to use Exchange and you wonder if it would be easier to find a different employer.—@ndw

@ndw You wonder? I think it's pretty clear.—@dethe

@ndw @CrazyJoeGallo corollary: your employer makes you use a Mac ...—@pjstadig

Emacs → Exim → SMTP → DavMail → HTTP → Exchange OWS → whatever unholy rites Exchange Server performs. I. WIN.—@ndw

@ndw I spent a bit of the afternoon configuring my version of this at home. Thanks! Knowing it was possible made all the difference.—@mathling

@mathling @ndw Someone should start a NoExchange movement!—@alexmilowski

@alexmilowski @ndw "What do we want? NoExchange! When do we want it? Now!"—@mathling

@mathling @ndw people still think Exchange is enterprise software even at an enterprise software company?—@alexmilowski

@ndw @shelleypowers It's always easier to change employers than use Exchange. And maybe Word.—@gleneivey

@ndw @davemarq If your server allows it you should be able to fetch mail using *NIX tools and avoid much drama.—@polkabecky

@ndw “If you can’t change your organization, you can still change your organization.” — @tedneward—@bsletten

@bsletten @ndw Actually that was Alistair Cockburn: "If you can't change your corporate culture, change your corporate culture". FYI—@tedneward

@bsletten @ndw I only wish I could be that eloquent. :-)—@tedneward

@tedneward @ndw Well, I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. So, there’s that.—@bsletten

@bsletten @ndw Which I appreciate. :-)—@tedneward

@ndw @WhatTheBit at least it is not Lotus Notes.—@askbal

@askbal @ndw @WhatTheBit …or GroupWorse™—@gimsieke

Saturday at 05:01pm

RP NPR + CIA = Credible Disinformation #Snowden #NRP #RecordedFuture http://t.co/axErY15Z6u—@patrickDurusau

Saturday at 06:55pm

All that pre-upgrade day work I did to get data copied was onto incorrectly partitioned disks. #fail #sigh #stillcopying—@ndw

Saturday at 11:08pm

RT @zephoria: Beyond race in America & police militarization, @zeynep argues that #Ferguson is also a net neutrality issue: http://t.co/0Mq…—@ndw

Sunday at 07:13am

XML Stars, the journal is out! http://t.co/rotnE9SrJr Stories via @ndw—@dominixml

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 03:19pm

It is clear that my server is painfully I/O bound. I hope I can get away without fixing that for a while as I have no idea how to.—@ndw

@ndw if you have some batch io processes on there ionice can make a huge dent—@gcarothers

@gcarothers I don't think that's it. I've got four SATA drives hanging off a single controller and I just don't think it's up to the task.—@ndw

Sunday at 06:39pm

There's technical debt, then there's technical subprime mortgages with exploding balloon payments.—@markimbriaco

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 08:02pm

Would a GitHub repo of AsciiDocs form a reasonable approximation of a wiki? With pull requests barring spam? #cantbeanoriginalthought—@ndw

@ndw See ikiwiki for starters, I'd guess?—@tapoueh

@ndw I like the idea. We use it for http://t.co/ZQbk1rZq5GG. See http://t.co/rig2sH0BfX & https://t.co/PQlwGmImnt plus deployment via CI.—@mojavelinux

@ndw GitHub’s wiki (git repo under the hood) allows AsciiDoc syntax, via #asciidoctor see e.g. https://t.co/08lI82lWzj—@rdeltour

@rdeltour Yes, but I assume an open GitHub wiki gets spammed into oblivion pretty quickly. The formality of pull requests might help.—@ndw

@ndw you can restrict the list of editors, but yeah PR don’t work with wikis. I agree that off-wiki adoc + PR can be a nice alternative!—@rdeltour

@ndw also, fwiw you need a gh account to edit an open wiki, not sure if spammers are there (… yet)—@rdeltour

Sunday at 08:34pm

Upgrade complete. All systems back to normal. Well, as normal as things get around here. http://t.co/nhuQu8OPkN—@ndw

Sunday at 08:35pm

In other news, I moved the XProc test suite to a github repo and released DocBook XSL 2.0 stylesheets 2.0.4-b2. And other stuff. #go #me—@ndw

Sunday at 09:27pm

@jgarber @kplawver @ficly Sorry to see it go. I posted a few things (pseudonymously) and have occasionally imagined sequels.—@ndw

In a conversation that started on Sunday at 09:33pm

@peteaven Geek. (Oh, come on, you *asked* for it.)—@ndw

@ndw Ha! Well played sir.—@peteaven

Sunday at 10:51pm

63 light years from Earth there's a planet where it rains glass sideways, in 7000km/h winds—@SciencePorn