[ncc-services-wg] Pre-PDP discussion: "All RIPE documents should be plain text"

Hi Richard,

> The various TeX flavors can generate PDF/A. 

/shiver I was wondering when someone would start about (LA)TeX ... and it didn't even took very long ... 

I have to agree with Sander, this is something that should start with actual requirements.  

Currently what I see is someone who is very happy in using CLI, GIT and such to see the difference between all these versions .. and whishing that he would have the output in (LA)TeX, where I'm more a regular Latex kind of guy (fun intended) .. more of a wysiwyg and clicker ... 

So if the actual end-results need to be published in multiple types of output and that could be done without costing the community an arm and a leg, feel free to write a requirement document (in txt :). 

One of the things that we would need to avoid imho is that people would have to start publishing PDP proposals in some kind of TeX dialect or anything alike ... or that people would have to get familiar with a CLI and all great GIT options before they would follow what is going on. I'm sure that would work for a select few, but the interaction within the community as is, is already shockingly low. 

Especially if we want to keep the community open for none-ISP tech savvy people. (think about LEA's or regular enterprises that start to deal with RIPE as their ISP's are running out of v4 and now they need to become an LIR), simplicity to use is key in my opinion and additional interfaces on how to export / filter / Diff etc through the data, is a nice bonus for those that want it. 

Regards,
Erik Bais