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From:   Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
To:     Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com>
Cc:     jack@suse.cz, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, tytso@mit.edu,
        Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com>,
        Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] ext4: docs: switch away from list-table
In-Reply-To: <b1909f4c-9e07-abd7-89ee-c2e551f9dc5b@gmail.com>
References: <20210902220854.198850-2-corbet@lwn.net>
 <b1909f4c-9e07-abd7-89ee-c2e551f9dc5b@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri, 03 Sep 2021 09:11:26 -0600
Message-ID: <871r65zobl.fsf@meer.lwn.net>
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Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com> writes:

[Adding Mauro]

> On Thu,  2 Sep 2021 16:08:53 -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
>
>> Commit 3a6541e97c03 (Add documentation about the orphan file feature) added
>> a new document on orphan files, which is great.  But the use of
>> "list-table" results in documents that are absolutely unreadable in their
>> plain-text form.  Switch this file to the regular RST table format instead;
>> the rendered (HTML) output is identical.
>
> In the "list tables" section of doc-guide/sphinx.rst, the first paragraph
> starts with the sentence:
>
>     We recommend the use of list table formats.
>
> Yes, the disadvantage of list tables is mentioned later in the paragraph:
>
>     Compared to the ASCII-art they might not be as comfortable for readers
>     of the text files.
>
> , but I still see list-table is meant as the preferred format.

Interesting...that is not at all my memory of the discussions we had at
that time.  There was a lot of pushback against anything that makes the
RST files less readable - still is, if certain people join the
conversation.  Tables were one of the early flash points.  

Mauro, you added that text; do you remember things differently?  Do you
feel we should retain that recommendation?

Thanks,

jon