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HTML as an Accessible Format for Papers (2023)

(info.arxiv.org)
262 points el3ctron | 3 comments | 06 Dec 25 14:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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teddy-smith ◴[06 Dec 25 17:12 UTC] No.46174872[source]▶
It's extremely easy to convert HTML/CSS to a PDF with the print to PDF feature of the browser.

All papers should be in HTML/CSS or Tex then just simply converted to PDF.

Why are we even talking about this?

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crazygringo ◴[06 Dec 25 20:28 UTC] No.46176356[source]▶
Have you ever written a paper for publication?

HTML doesn't support the necessary features. Citations in various formats, footnotes, references to automatically numbered figures and tables, I could go on and on.

HTML could certainly be extended to support those, but it hasn't been. That's why we're talking about this.

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teddy-smith ◴[06 Dec 25 23:36 UTC] No.46177632[source]▶
Come on are you serious? HTML/CSS is more powerful than TEX or PDF.

https://csszengarden.com/

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1. crazygringo ◴[07 Dec 25 02:04 UTC] No.46178547[source]▶
Did you fully read my comment? Please point me to where HTML/CSS provide the features I listed.

It doesn't really matter if HTML/CSS is more powerful at a hundred other layout things, if it doesn't provide the absolute necessary features for papers.

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2. teddy-smith ◴[07 Dec 25 16:28 UTC] No.46182894[source]▶
Citations in various formats,

> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/...

> https://codepen.io/tag/citation

footnotes

>https://codepen.io/SitePoint/pen/QbMgvY

references to automatically numbered figures and tables

> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25869906/table-auto-numb...\

> https://codepen.io/MikeKelley/pen/GpXmEd

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3. crazygringo ◴[09 Dec 25 14:28 UTC] No.46205254[source]▶
I don't think you understand.

Citations need to generate reference lists. Footnotes require automatic placement at the bottom of each page. Your examples of numbered tables are numbering the rows, not the tables. And figure numbers need to be referenced in the text.

None of what you're pointing to does what academic papers need. Why are you trying to push this agenda?