Re: [boost] [Boost-docs] [quickbook] [MPL] Knowing where you are the wrong way

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-22 08:15:35

Daryle Walker <darylew_at_[hidden]> writes:

> On 3/21/06 2:03 PM, "David Abrahams" <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
>> Joel de Guzman <joel_at_[hidden]> writes:
>> 
>>> Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:04:02 +0800
>>> Reply-To: boost_at_[hidden]
>>> 
>>> Daryle Walker wrote:
>>>> [I've added the main Boost list to this response so the MPL guys can see
>>>> it.]
>>>> 
>>>> On 3/16/06 5:46 AM, "Joel de Guzman" <joel_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> In the link I presented a while ago (http://snipurl.com/no8s),
>>>>> you might have noticed that the headings are clickable.
>>>>> Headings now link to itself. Again, this is borrowed from
>>>>> the MPL docs. This allows you to right click and copy
>>>>> the URL, for example (especially useful in deeply nested
>>>>> sections). You know where you are, anywhere.
>>>> 
>>>> So my final advice is to remove this mis-feature, and have the MPL docs
>>>> purge it too.
>>> 
>>> Good points! Thanks for taking the trouble to explain in detail.
>>> Makes perfect sense, IMO.
>> 
>> Not to me.  Despite what Daryle says, the feature hurts nobody (or at
>> least he hasn't explained why it hurts anyone), and once you discover
>> it's there, it's very useful.  If there were a more explicit way to
>> implement those links without interfering with presentation, I might
>> go for it, but I don't have any brilliant ideas and nobody else has
>> offered any so for now, that's the best we can do.
>
> You don't implement the feature at all, just read the URL from the browser's
> input/status line for copy & paste.  The feature doesn't add anything the
> the user couldn't already do, 

Unless you have been very unclear (which is what I assume you meant by
saying that Joel and I have "confused ourselves"), it certainly does.
It provides a way to find a direct link to the subsection header.
When I've had to do that with other pages I often find myself viewing
the page source to see if there's an <a name="..."> tag I can use,
which is terrible.  If you use the original docutils semantics, it
also provides a way to see where you are in the TOC in context.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com