Arch Linux

pakazite

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 2

wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

Yes, i'm new to archlinux.
But it's been a month that i installed "overlord" on my laptop and then on my PC.
i found that the wiki is very helpful but i prefer to read it in pdf so i copy those selected pages and paste to OpenOffice, convert it to pdf and read them via pdf viewer on another computer(i did it while installing arch on my laptop and do the opposite while installing on that PC).
Recently, i just know that there are some apps that can convert html page to pdf or else like "htmldoc" but it's not friendly enough for me though.
And i might miss something else beside htmldoc but it could be a time cunsuming task to convert those things.
So, is it possible for arch team to convert all topics to pdf that anyone can download them very easily and without any extra experience or effort?

I know, the wiki is alwals dynamic and it's a hard work and boring to do such things but i think this could be a great help for everyone(especially who loves reading pdf docs).I got this idea when i was searching some infos in Gentoo and FreeBSD's official sites that i could choose lots of format to download any docs and they're very informative and polished though some of them are obsolete or outdated. Yeah, the arch's pdf docs should be in the similar way or better.

If there's a better way to convert every single page to pdf, please tell me.
For now i've got plenty of them already, but for a very newbie it's would be nice, really.
And i think that's not easy to contribute the wiki myself while some might call me noob.
So what's your suggestion?.

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some  say :  "Linux sucks."
i say : "Yeah, but it sucks less!"

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

The wiki, like most Arch things, is a community effort. If you, and possibly others, would like to take on the task of converting the wiki to pdf, and keeping the pdfs in sync as the wiki changes, please go ahead. If others are interested, maybe they will post here.The arch dev team contributes to the wiki like everyone else, but we certainly wouldn't have the time to do this alongside our existing work.

Personally, I don't understand the need for this. If you have a second computer at hand, why not view the wiki directly on it?

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

You can also print directly to pdf with firefox3. Of course, if you plan to convert the whole wiki, you are better off with command line tools.

ruscook

Member

From: Sydney Australia

Registered: 2007-08-27

Posts: 105

Website

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

Why not just use wget to mirror the wiki site to your local drive and read it in your browser offline whenever you want?

Then you can sync it easily, copy the directory you d/l it to, to other PCs and print pages as necessary without being online all the time?

Russ

Garns

Member

Registered: 2008-05-28

Posts: 239

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

If there's a better way to convert every single page to pdf, please tell me.
For now i've got plenty of them already, but for a very newbie it's would be nice, really.
And i think that's not easy to contribute the wiki myself while some might call me noob.
So what's your suggestion?.

Some time ago I wrote a little script to convert wiki to txt for the CD. As I'm using texinfo it was relatively easy to modify it to create pdfs. Like this.

I can guarantee you that it will fail on some pages, but it should work well for most of them.

You can find the script here

extract both files into one dir and then run

python wiki2pdf.py WIKIPAGETITLE

Caveat: This requires LaTeX

Last edited by Garns (2008-08-11 22:34:32)

pakazite

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 2

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

Personally, I don't understand the need for this. If you have a second computer at hand, why not view the wiki directly on it?

Mmm yes, this might be a good solution but sometimes pdf works better than web page for me, especially when i don't have internet connection(which most people don't have this problem these days)at that time and i just don't have a (working) printer nearby to print them directly and etc.
About contributing pdf to the wiki myself, if there are many people request this just like me, what i have to do to login and upload my docs?
Is it require so much privileges?

This is just my first post, sorry for bothering you.By the way, thank you for every comments and Garns, i will try this code tonight.

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some  say :  "Linux sucks."
i say : "Yeah, but it sucks less!"

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

About contributing pdf to the wiki myself, if there are many people request this just like me, what i have to do to login and upload my docs?
Is it require so much privileges?

Just create an account on the wiki like you did for the forums...there's a Wiki help section (in many languages) explaining how to edit wiki entries as well as best practises, but basically you just go to the page you want to edit and then click "Edit".

Wiki Help: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Help

Last edited by thayer (2008-08-12 05:48:46)

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

im_ka

Member

Registered: 2004-03-07

Posts: 118

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

i wouldn't recommend converting the entire wiki to pdf and rely on those docs as they change (frequently).

but having a pdf version of the 'official arch linux install guide' would be helpful:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Off … tall_Guide

users could use the manual as a printed reference when installing and setting up arch. it wouldn't be much effort to provide an up-to-date pdf.

i'll make a pdf over the coming week-end.

the question is how often the pdf should be updated, as i see that the wiki page is updated quite frequently with small changes.

- update the pdf with major revisions?
- update the pdf with arch releases?

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

if one knows a good and free online pdf conversion website, we could put a link in the wiki like that:
Official Arch Installation Guide PDF
that way you will get a snapshot from the time you download it, so it would be easy to just add a link on other wikipages as well.

on a sidenote: with Nuke Anything you can strip down the beginners guide wikipage and print/print to pdf the relevant parts only.

Last edited by hokasch (2008-08-20 14:00:41)

im_ka

Member

Registered: 2004-03-07

Posts: 118

Re: wiki in pdf (and other format) , please

actually, there is the 'printable version' link for each page:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?tit … ntable=yes

from there it should be pretty straightforward to make a pdf either from windows (there a free pdf printers) or linux.
or there are plenty of pdf extensions for mediawiki if there is demand to output pages in pdf directly.

the problem with online tools is that the sites are messy/unprofessional and some of them put ads on the created docs

Last edited by im_ka (2008-08-20 14:15:06)