Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!att!alberta!ubc-cs!fornax!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@fornax.UUCP (Ken Mcdonald)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: The USENET Macintosh Programmer's Guide
Summary: The INTELLIGENT way to distribute?
Keywords: Programming Guide
Message-ID: <929@fornax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 89 05:39:44 GMT
Organization: School of Computing Science, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada
Lines: 29

[various referenes and other stuff deleted]
> >>The common denominator among all programmers is TEXT files.
> 
> The lowest common denominator, yes.
> 
> >I agree that the most used medium is text files, but in the interest
> >of readability and presentation some more aesthetic format is
> >desirable.
> 
> Also true.  Why not Macwrite?  I've yet to run across a Mac that didn't
> have a copy of Macwrite.  But I'd estimate only 15-20% of Mac users have
> Word.  _I_ certainly don't.
>
Forgive me if I'm not entirely up to date on wht the UMPG is to be, I missed
the first messages about it...but I think I've got the gist.

Given the resources available to the UseNet in general, why not write a little
application (a DA, perhaps?) to display the manual in styled TextEdit--for 
sure the author of that wouldn't mind if his code was adapted to this use.  One
could also put in an organizational hierarchy, simply through the use of HFS
folders, which would then allow a user to customize it to their preferences 
(so the info they use the most is easiest to get to) just by moving files.  
Later, an index generator could be added, or other things.  Given the breadth
of programming talent available on the UseNet (a category into which I, sadly,
do not yet fall), it would seem reasonable to make use of some of this talent,
it is willing.

Ken McDonald