Bugzilla Bug 82199

Due to poor eyesight, when I read online the Gentoo Handbook I
use the browser to magnify it a lot.  I attach "style=printable"
to the URL, e.g

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?full=1&style=printable

so that the text will "flow/linebreak" and not extend off
the screen.  (This also has the advantage that I can size the
text and window so that there are only about 7 words per line,
which helps my eye come back to the correct line.)

So for me, the "printable" option has become "more easily
readable". 

 My request is that "style=printable" ALSO cause all the
Gentoo-links within the document to hereditarily have
"style=printable" attached.  Thus as I click on links to read
other Gentoo documents, I don't have to type "style=printable" on
each URL and then reload the document.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

I don't think we can implement this easily. We don't have separate tags for
internal (pointing to GuideXML pages) versus external (sites and downloads and
such) links. And pointing to www.google.com?style=printable would give a 404...

Thanks for your reply;  ---I see what your saying.  

Would either of the following be possible:  

1: The webpage server sets a "cookie" default/printable and if
the user chooses to have cookies enabled, then whenever he
accesses a Gentoo URL that has a "style=printable" variant, then
that variant can be served.
    This wouldn't require changing links within pages.

2: Or: How about this alternative, working for those folks with a
Gentoo username?  
    When I visit a forum, the webserver knows that "gentsquash"
(your truly) is logged-on.  Can we put into the Gentoo
preferences-menu a selection "Serve document pages
in printer-friendly format"?  The user can switch this on/off as
he desires.

================================

Independent of all of the above: The non-printable style has a
sidebar which lists various stuff, including (often? always?)
the date that the document was last revised.  

I request that this date also be put IN the document so that,
when we print/view the "style=printable" version, we can know the
date.

Well, what I can do is have the inheritance of the printable style in the
handbook pages only. I'll put up a guide.xsl and handbook.xsl patch that does
that already. It should take out most links; only those referencing other
handbooks (with another base address) won't be taken with it.

The printable style shouldn't have any navigation in it (which is why the
printable style is used in the first place), I don't know if it's intelligent
to have each and every page served on a printable way for the user who wishes
so - that would mean we need to add a "non-printable" link as well so that the
user can go back to the non-printable style.

I rather keep the printable-style for single documents only - having it
throughout the entire handbook is handy though, since it constitutes a single
(but large) document and is used during critical operations (fex installation).

I'll see for the date-inclusion next.

Created an attachment (id=52105) [details]
Patch for guide.xsl

Created an attachment (id=52106) [details]
Patch for handbook.xsl

The pages already have this (date) information in their printable version, both
for guide's as the handbook index. Separate chapters of the handbook don't, but
I'm not sure if that's sane to put in since it's already mentioned for the
handbook - only on a different page.

Dear Sven Vermeulen

Perhaps I misunderstood what you wrote above.

Please don't remove links from the "style=printable".  For me,
with my eyesight, it means 

   "style=readable"

because it allows me to magnify the text and still keep it on the
screen.

If navigation links disappear, even only those going to
non-Gentoo documents, it will make it very difficult for someone
like me with poor eyesight to use the document.

I'd much rather that things stay the way they were, rather than
remove links.  

The old way, I simply had to type "&style=printable" and the end
of each URL document that I actually decided to read.  But if
navigation, even for just non-Gentoo links, is removed, it'll
make using the document very very difficult.  

Please don't remove links --that would be awful for me, much
worse than the way it was.  (Unless I've misunderstood what you wrote.)

Don't worry, I'm not removing anything. What I'm trying to say is that the
printable pages do not provide any way of navigation through the Gentoo website
(the banner where the navigation is put in is only visible on the regular
pages, not the printer-friendly ones). And that we're not going to put any
navigation in the printable pages as well. Iow, they'll stay as they are now
(at least that's the current idea).

The patches currently added on this bugreport adds the ?style=printable to the
links where we can (i.e. where we are certain that the links are to
Gentoo-pages only).

Created an attachment (id=52247) [details]
Extended stickyness

This patch includes Sven's patches and extend the stickyness of the printable
style.

IMO, this is a very good idea for our visually-impaired readers. Actually, I
read the printable versions often myself and I like this idea very much.

Sven objected to it but I think that making the printable style sticky on
mainpage links as well is a good idea. Mainpages (front page, indexes...) are
not affected at all but some linked pages become printable automatically.

Dear Sven

Thank you for the reassurance. I assumed that I was
misunderstanding; I wasn't interpreting the "banner" as part of
the documentation page.

Re: The date.  Yes, I see it now under the authors --I'm sorry
that I missed it earlier.

Re: Mr. Xavier Neys comment.  Maybe the best of both worlds,
cheaply, is to, at the beginning of each

* "style=printable" document, put a link to the banner-version.

* banner-version document, put a link to the printable  version.
(Or, this latter link could be IN the banner.)

That way folks can quickly go between styles, at the cost of a
single link.

> * "style=printable" document, put a link to the banner-version.
I'm not too keen on that but maybe we could make the title a link to the normal version. This way, an actual print out will look the same as it does now.

> * banner-version document, put a link to the printable version.
There is one already.

FYI, some "banner-version" documents as you call them are not printable anyway.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?style=printable is the same as http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml
What changes with the suggested patch is that when you go to a document that is printable from a url that has ?style=printable in it, you automatically get the printable version, making the style hereditary as you asked.

Example:
Say you go to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?style=printable , the page will look the same. Then click on FAQ to get http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?style=printable&catid=faq which also looks no different, then click on the first doc to go to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/faq.xml?style=printable TADA, you get the printable one. Near the end of the FAQ, there is a link to the releng project home page. You'd get a link to http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/?style=printable TADA, printable again.

I suggested earlier on to make ?style=printable sticky even on the top bar navigation and left-hand menu on what you call banner-pages.
Example: start from http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?style=printable again, the link to 'Get Gentoo!' would be http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml?style=printable which makes no difference, but then it would have a link to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml?style=printable

Sounds (well, "reads") good to me.  Will there be an announcement
on the Forums, or will we just notice the difference?

Thank you for your hard work

There are a few changes on the stylesheets waiting for feedback.
A thread has just started on our gentoo-doc mailing list, see
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.documentation/1847

There migh be an annoucement if all suggested changes are applied, so that users are not taken by surprise.

You might want to surf around http://dev.gentoo.org/~neysx/gentoo.org/index.html to get an idea about the printable stickyness. Please note that those pages are static html.
Please have a look at http://dev.gentoo.org/~neysx/gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml%3Fpart=0&chap=0&style=printable.html

Thanks.

While we're on the subject, reassigning to Xavier :)

Fixed a few days ago. Thanks for reporting.