[Celinux-dev] PDF documentation

[Bill Traynor]

On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Constantine Shulyupin
<const at makelinux.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have some questions and ideas about documentation in PDF format.
> During embedded SW development I often work with documentation,
> especially datasheets in PDF format. I have some issues with such
> documentation. It is not so easy to manage a lot of PDF documents
> sometimes with strange code in file names.  It is not easy to store
> and share links to documentation.
> It is possible to reference to a PDF page in this way
> http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/omap4430.pdf#page=100 , but it slow
> and doesn’t work in all cases.
> Sometimes it is more easy just to copy paste and send by email part of
> documentation instead of using hyperlinks.
> I found, that it is more easy work (and work collaboratively) with
> documentation in HTML format. Sometimes it is possible just to convert
> PDF to HTML.
>
> Questions:
> - have same issues with PDF documentation and datasheets?

Yes, PDFs can be unwieldy.  However, for a vendor, they provide an
immutable format that allows vendors to disseminate technical
information in one format, thereby decreasing their documentation
requirements.

> - do you think documentation and datasheets in HTML format on a site
> can be more useful than PDF?

Useful for some perhaps, but not universally useful.  There just isn't
one perfect solution for datasheet documentation.

> - what PDF documentation do you use? (You can just drop a link to PDF,
> for example http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/omap4430.pdf)

http://beagleboard.org/static/beaglebone/latest/Docs/Hardware/BONE_SCH.pdf

etc. etc.

>
> --
> Constantine Shulyupin
> http://www.MakeLinux.com/
> Embedded Linux Systems,
> Device Drivers, TI DaVinci
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