Beautified documents

[Todd Boyle <tboyle@rosehill.net>]

Don't beautify documents with excessive margins and page breaks. 
Beautify the planet instead, by reducing paper and (ugh) toner usage.

This also improves efficiency of developers because you don't have to 
flip pages as often.  It also encourages people to print the specs and 
keep them closer to the desktop.  It increases the average density of 
information in the developers workspace.  They're more likely to bring
ebXML specifications to conferences.  They fit in your carryon bags.
Your adoption improves because your rules are physically present at
the scene of the arguments. 

For example, attached are beautified versions of:

 * Naming Convention for Core Components v1.04 
   (ebCCNAMbeaut.doc) prints in 7 pages instead of 13.

 * Core Component Structure v1.04 (ccSTRUCTbeaut.xls) 
   prints in 7 pages instead of 26.

I'd like to see the e-commerce standards bodies agree on standards for 
conservation in document formatting.  For example, the EDIFACT specs and 
OAGI are notorious for low information density per page.  

Furthermore, these ebXML docs, OAGIS docs, etc. should be available in 
HTML versions.  That would reduce the need for printing by some folks, 
perhaps.  

If standards bodies pooled resources they might be able to afford an XML 
platform for content management.  Users could generate the formats 
(HTML, DOC, PDF, etc) and information density preferences they desire, 
from a single set of content docs and multiple stylesheets.   The ultimate
stylesheet would be the little "command summary" cards that come with
O'Reilly books.

respectfully,
Todd Boyle CPA kirkland wa

ebCCNAMbeaut.doc

ccSTRUCTbeaut.xls