Re: Texinfo/info: scrolling images (Re: Gtk patch version 3, part 1)

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

   > more important, the info file format still lack image support.

Actually, Info has enjoyed image support from its beginning -- I
remember vividly creating images for Info for the Texinfo manual.  
See File: texinfo, Node: Tree Structuring

The images are built from plain ASCII characters, of course, but they
are there.

Images, even those built from plain ASCII, are a danger.  This is
because Texinfo is designed for a wide variety of output formats, not
only for fast computers and high resolution typset printing.  Texinfo
is designed for listening.

If you drive a car, you are `situationally blind' and should not look
at images in a document, but only listen to it.  If you are
permanently blind, you may be able to feel an image, if you have the
right kind of output equipment, but more likely, you will listen to
it.  

Remember, in its `Emacspeak' variation, GNU Emacs provides a complete
auditory environment for a typical personal computer.  A normal PC
requires no additional cards or parts besides an audio card (which
most modern PCs already have).  Both the `flite' and its Emacs
interface `eflite' are in Debian (and other distributions) and provide
the requisit text-to-voice driver for Emacspeak.

People who have good vision and don't think if using their computers
in theirscars often think images are wonderful.  The use too many of
them.  And they design documents that don't hear well.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                                     bob@gnu.org