[Glastonbury] next meeting
Martin Wheeler
mwheeler at startext.co.uk
Wed Nov 30 16:44:54 GMT 2005
On Wed, 30 Nov 2005, Ian Dickinson wrote:
> Hi Martin,
> Wednesdays have got a bit complicated for me with family commitments,
> so getting to the next meeting could be tricky.
I'm actually beginning to favour something like the second Thursday of
every month myself, so don't worry.
I've just been on the phone to Steve, and there's more than a chance we
may change the official status of the group as far as the school is
concerned so we can then use the school premises whenever we want; but
what this all entails I'm not sure about as yet. Maybe Steve will let us
know when he gets on line.
Also, the reason next week's meeting was changed is because Steve will be
in London that day -- *exactly* the sort of thing Sean and I want to
avoid.
Mainly because it puts an unfair onus on Steve to be around for the
meetings whether he wants to be there or not -- and has repercussions on
whether we can, or can't, meet on a regular basis.
This *has* to be sorted.
Almost three years down the line, and the conditions in place when we set
up the group no longer obtain -- there are now more than 60 of us, each
with different limitations; and we have to have a little more tightness in
the organisation of what we do, and when we do it.
I throw this open for comment and discussion.
>> (If no-one's thought about this yet: Ian, I wouldn't mind hearing how your
>> large-project DocBook coding turned out;
> Weelll - badly would be the summary. In something of a blow for
> DocBook and OSS, I spent the best part of a couple of months wrestling
> with tools.
<sympathetic clucking noises>
I'm sorry to hear it; but I know *exactly* what it's like.
I'm afraid the DocBook / OSS toolchain for heavyweight publications is
nowhere near competent (or robust) enough at the moment -- it's fairly OK
for text-only; but get adventurous and start adding complex graphics
(complex equations? you must be mad!) and you're definitely on your own.
Personally, I've taken to using OpenOffice.org -- it produces beautiful
pdfs; it allows me to incorporate all my network diagrams and statistical
charts (I just *hate* editing tables with it, though -- it's so finicky).
I've tried unzipping the .sxw files it produces to get at the XML it
creates, but it's no easy job picking your way through that without a
first-class XML graphic editor (sorry - quanta doesn't cut the mustard
yet).
So yeah -- I know where you're coming from. Unfortunately.
> On reflection, I *could* have gone back to
> using LaTeX, which I used to use 15 years ago. Those neurons are
> probably revivable! But by the time I'd finished with DocBook I was
> desperate to stop focusing on tool issues.
(There's nothing wrong with LaTeX. In fact if you've got exceptional
print/visual presentation needs, it's probably *still* your best bet.)
Tool issues... Been there... *Still* there...
>> or Sean, can you enlighten us on
>> AJAX techniques?)
> How much are non-Linux issues in scope for discussion? There's various
> interesting** software stuff I could talk about, but, like ajax, most
> of it is operating-system neutral.
Well, I'm pretty broad-minded.
As I see it, the Linux User Group is for those who *use* Linux -- for
whatever.
So anything they use it for is fair game to me.
(Anyone know anything about network analysis? Heavyweight statistical
analysis? I'm teaching myself and making very heavy weather of it.
Could do with a good evening's talk on whatever anyone else has done.)
So folks -- if you're using Linux for something interesting -- let us
know, and we'll turn up and listen to you talk to us about it.
Cheers all,
--
Martin Wheeler - StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
mwheeler at startext.co.uk http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB 6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
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