[DOC-SIG] Library reference SGML plan / size of supplied documentation

[Edward Welbourne]

> Just read an article where some information guru pointed out that very
> few users actually used the scrollbar, unless the page contained some
> really, really, important information...

(T)read with care.
90% of all pages are recognisable as junk within the first screen-full.
90% of users are just skimming.
90% of pages are less information-rich than the python doc-set.
88.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Naive reasoning from statistical information is nearly always flawed.
`very few users' (of the web) use python.
Disproportionately many visitors to python doc pages will be using
scroll-bars.

The decomposition of an on-line document into pages should be done on
semantic grounds, not `how big is a page' grounds.  (How big is half a
hole in the ground ?)  Authors shouldn't worry about page-size, beyond
the boring practicality of finding some semantic excuse for cutting a
document into modest-sized lumps.  Authors should never assume - let
alone impose - anything at all about (on) the window dimensions or
font-set being used in the browser.

	Eddy.

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