Re: [mpi-21] Documents

[William Gropp <gropp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think that we should stick with LaTeX.  The current document is in LaTeX, and the need to use an older version was only to verify that we had the correct sources.  Once we're under source control, that issue vanishes, and we can easily produce PDF, HTML, and other formats.  As most of the writing is text, the learning curve for most authors is quite short.  And for a standard, cleanly separating concepts (like emphasis) from ad hoc formating (italics) is quite important; the more so for large documents.   LaTeX is actually better at that than many other systems (whose WYSIWYG but undisciplined interfaces encourage ad hoc formatting insertions).  

Bill

On Jan 4, 2008, at 2:08 PM, Jeff Squyres wrote:

Per Rich's note about making a consolidated MPI-2.1 document (including all of MPI-1.2+errata and all MPI-2.1+errata), I think that's a fantastic idea.

1. What will be the source format for this document (and for successive MPI documents)?  The original MPI documents were written in the then-current version of LaTeX (Rainer Keller tells me that you have to downgrade to that version of LaTeX to build the docs).  Are other source formats possible?

LaTeX is fine, but there are only a few people who can write in it; the learning curve is fairly steep.  Other open formats with free editors are feasible for large documents.  For example, OpenOffice supports templates, natively exports to multiple formats (such as PDF and HTML), supports digital signatures to guarantee the One True MPI Standard Document, etc.  Others are likely possible, too.

2. PDF is fairly prevalent these days; it would be good if MPI-2.1 (and later) had official PDF's published.  I don't have much of an opinion about official postscript docs anymore; does anyone still have a requirement for that?  Official HTML should also be published.  In making PDF's, it would be quite useful if they were fully indexed, cross-linked (e.g., clicking in the TOC and index takes you to the appropriate section), and full-text searchable.  [pdf]LaTeX, OpenOffice, and others can produce such PDF documents.

-- 

Jeff Squyres

Cisco Systems

William Gropp

Paul and Cynthia Saylor Professor of Computer Science

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign