Re: Boreanesian in the Web (was: Why Triggers?)

En réponse à Dungeonmaster <dungeonmaster@...>:

> >
> > Taking approximately 10 times as much time to download than a HTML
> file of
> > corresponding size.
>
> You mean: of corresponding content. As I said in a reply to someone
> else:
> you almost always must trade size for quality. As HTML pages are hardly
> more
> than ASCII documents, they are usually quite small. But if you want to
> include images etc, I don't think a PDF file is much larger than a HTML
> site
> with its linked files, especially not when it includes many image
> files.
>
True. But language pages don't need that many images.

> I have a PDF file without images, 45 pages, no larger than 120 kB. As I
> have
> a quite fast connection, it downloads in 2 to 3 seconds.
>
Lucky you. Though the connection here is extremely fast (I'm using the computer
at work, in a laboratory of the TU Deflt), PDF-files read trough the browser
are extremely slow to download. On the other hand, if I download them (right-
click), it usually takes no time. I think it's Acrobat Reader working with
Internet Explorer which is very slow.

> > Moreover, it usually doesn't cache all the
> > file, but gets only the page you're watching, making navigation
> > extremely slow and difficult.
>
> I have never had this happen. My computer always downloads the entire
> file,
> then displays it.
>
You're lucky then. I've looked and didn't find the way to do it like that,
except by saving the file to the disc and then read it. And this is not
navigation anymore then.

> > When I really want to see a PDF-file, I download it and then
> > print it, it's much faster.
>
> I don't want to print eveything I read...
>
Me neither.

>
> Never found that to be a problem. I think when viewing PDF files online
> it
> is more the speed of your internet connection than your CPU speed that
> determines the loading time.
Not sure. As I told you, here we have a fast connection (I think it's an
optical fiber connection). In fact, after a connection problem, we got a second
connection, even faster. So now the laboratory is connected through two
different ultra-fast lines. And yet, I get the problems I've described you.

 I have a 1 GHz, 384 Mb PC, with an
> ADSL-connection and only with extremely big files (NetBooks of several
> hundred pages), do I have an appreciable waiting time.
>
When I get my computer, I'll have an ADSL connection too. I'll probably take
the Broadband Premium offer, since I'm a downloading freak (I often download
10Mb files - episodes of my favorite anime -). :))

>
> Yes, the price of Adobe Acrobat is certainly a problem. I am glad I
> could
> get my hands on a (legal!) copy for free.
>
And how did you do that, if I may ask? Because that's interesting.

>
> > True. Still, waiting for two minutes to get a single page
> > downloaded is not what I call "user-friendly". And I had to go
> through
> > such things when I try to read PDF-files through the browser.
>
> Two minutes for a single page or a single file???
For the first page. First, Internet Explorer has to call Acrobat Reader. It
takes already a while. Then the downloading begins, then it takes a while for
the page to appear, even after it's downloaded. And it truly downloads only a
few pages, since after two minutes of reading my computer was stuck again
downloading the next pages. IIRC, it was a 50 pages document, with a few
graphics (but nothing very heavy, no photo for instance).

 Although even the
> latter
> seems pretty absurd to me, unless you have a 28k8 modem or you are
> trying to
> download the complete and illustrated works of Shakespeare in PDF (well,
> ok,
> that would take more than 2 minutes I guess).
>
As I told you, it would be rather difficult to get a faster connection than the
one I have at work. Maybe the computer is as fast as a snail, I don't know. I
don't know its characteristics, except that it's a Pentium III. But saving big
files is not a problem (the 10Mb files I often download take no more than 1min
to download, usually even less). Reading PDF-files through the browser is the
only case where it happens to be slow. That's why I'm a little concerned about
Internet surfing through PDF-files.

> My site contains PDF files for a big set of NetBooks for a roleplaying
> game.
> Most of these files are about 1 MB (some smaller, one as big as 6.8 MB),
> but
> they contain 100s of pages of text each and small illustrations as
> well.
>
I have to look at that. What's the URL?

>
> I think combining both would be best. A site based on HTML with
> detailed
> information on languages etc in PDF files.
>
It's an idea.

> Maarten van Beek
>
> Krimpen aan den IJssel (near Rotterdam)
> The Netherlands
>
So you're not far! Even the busline I sometimes use to go to work goes until
Rotterdam Central :)) .

Makes me think that we didn't do conlang meetings for a while now. Are the
Dutch conlangers on the list interested?

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

Reply