Both have been “on the roadmap” from day 1, with little progress.
Many open source projects put “we should make our system accessible to disabled vision issues” on the roadmap, depressingly few projects then actually do it.
Even latex, which in academic circles is famous for not having html output, nowadays produces more accessible output than typist.
You are right that it's been on the roadmap for a while, however, it's definitely very high on their priority list. The recent update (v0.12) contained a lot of necessary internal refactorings of the layout engine, and they've mentioned on the Discord that after v0.12, they will start work on HTML output.
PDFs can be translated to EPUB using existing programs. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Typst emits "good" PDF (I worked on a PDF program for years and I know it when I see it) so that conversion should be fairly high fidelity.
Clearly this is not as good as offering a second backend, but the latter is also a huge amount of work. I'm sure if you showed Typst cases where their PDF output doesn't translate to EPUB cleanly using available converters, they would at least investigate and see if they can improve that.
But without demonstrating that translation isn't working, I'm not going to accept the claim that there's an accessibility problem here.
I suppose it depends on how you define "everyday life", but in digital image processing, derivatives can be used as a relatively simple method for edge detection.
For example, the Sobel and Prewitt operators (1st derivative) and the Laplacian operator (2nd derivative) can be used as filter kernels to detect edges in images.
I found this post because it showed up in a TUI Microsub[0] client that talks to a Microsub server[1] which is subscribed to one of the HN-to-RSS service's front page feed.
I use my RSS/feed reader pretty extensively as a central hub to collect "news" from a variety of sources, including from closed platforms such as YouTube via their semi-hidden RSS feed support. I like having a central place where things that may be of interest to me show up without me having to discover them actively or having to rely e.g. on the YouTube subscription interface.
I personally really like the concept of Microsub, because it allows you to have a single designated server takes care of fetching the feeds, normalizing the content and synchronizing state (e.g. read status, subscriptions, channel/folder organization) and you can then access that data from any client that supports the protocol. I specifically like Microsub, as opposed to some of the other "synchronization protocols" that are more or less supported by some services because it is an open protocol independent from any specific platform/implementation.
Okay, I'm genuinely confused now, can someone please explain this to me?
First of all, how is nobody taking about the fact that OP was scheduled
for an exam that takes place... at midnight.
There are two possible cases here.
Some people are alleging that OP lives in the same place as the exam
takes place -- which is not clear to me from the information available
-- and use this as an excuse for saying "OP should adopt to local
customs".
But that would imply the exam takes place on midnight in local time. Is
that actually a thing? Like, is this normal? Why on earth would anyone
assume that's the case in an ambiguous situation like this, I can see why
you would assume it's at noon without giving it too much thought.
The second case is that OP not in the same place (e.g. the given time at
midnight does not match OP's local time), but in this case I blame the
institution for allowing people to attend exams remotely while not
properly accommodating for time differences.
While 12:00 AM/PM may be technically valid time descriptions, I was
under the impression that it was common (in places that use the 12 hour
system) to instead write 12:00 noon/midnight specifically to avoid this.
From what I understand, Americans are confused by this too, so why are people so eager to blame Europeans, rather than the system?
Second, I don't understand people saying they use 11:59/12:01 AM/PM as a
mnemonic. This makes no sense to me as 00:01 a valid time. How do the
above times resolve anything, when all you do is increase/decrease the
time, relative to the label, which is what makes it confusing in the
first place.
I don't understand how I'm supposed to know which of AM/PM 00:01 refers
to, unless I already know what AM/PM means.
Third, people making comparisons to reading an analog clock. When I read
an analog clock, I get a time in a 12 hour window. Fair enough. But when
I then translate it to 24h, what I do is use my knowledge of whether it
is currently day or night to translate it. Which has nothing to do with
memorizing which label is which. Analog clocks don't have AM/PM labels
so how would this make any more sense?
OP here. The online exam is run by Pearson Vue. With my brief research I found it’s a British company. That could be the reason they use AM/PM.
I think with better UX on their scheduling app this would have been avoided. Imagine how much cost they could save with minor improvement. It wasted the proctors, customer service and my time. Unless they don't acknowledge own fault and require customers to pay for another exam.
But the thing that made me realize is that the root case is the time notation itself. Imagine how much frustration and unnecessary expenses this could inflict in general.
I hope this doesn't come off as unnecessarily combative, but the real solution here is to check, verify, double-check and triple-check when presented with notation that's unfamiliar with you.
> How do we solve this more universally?
It's not a universal problem. While entire cultures and countries /could/ invest resources changing (and more people experience confusion centered around any transition), it really isn't a problem for most. And when it is, it's unlikely to be a problem a second time. Once bit, twice shy.
Perhaps universal is too broad “scope” here. Companies nowadays offer services on the internet with reach to every corner of the world. Their customers shouldn’t need to adapt any specific cultural or company origin habits to use their services. Companies should adapt instead if they are offering services to other demographics. It should be easily understood without ambiguity. Yes we all learn from mistakes, but what if this doesn’t result in mistakes all.
Thinking of this further, it seems to me this type of issues are related to accessibility.
Regarding double checking unfamiliar notation: it’s my habit to verify when it’s unclear. The problem is that i know what AM/PM mean. This is a special case i misunderstood. One cannot conclude the misunderstanding until pointed out by an external party.
Based on the comments in this post, it’s obvious i’m not the only struggling with this. Imagine what impact this has on general population as the cultural/country borders are pretty much non-existent on the internet.
> There are two possible cases here. (snip) I was under the impression that it was common (in places that use the 12 hour system) to instead write 12:00 noon/midnight specifically to avoid this.
IMHO the bigger takeaway ought to be that what is "common" in your area isn't necessarily common in another part of the country, or in another country. This confusion exists because the Europeans (and nowadays the Americans) exported their time measurement system across cultures, to mixed success. It's never obvious and should not be assumed to be... that confusion can exist no matter what actual UNIX time the test was scheduled at.
> Second, I don't understand people saying they use 11:59/12:01 AM/PM as a mnemonic. This makes no sense to me as 00:01 a valid time.
For this specific case, it helps clarify what is "noon" vs "midnight". For some reason people are a lot better with knowing 11:59pm is, vs 12:00AM. The cutover is what throws people off. And for most purposes, the +/- 1-3 minute difference won't matter.
The midnight/noon thing doesn't really help when you're going across oceans though. Or, like you said, if you're not familiar with AM/PM at all.
>I was under the impression that it was common (in places that use the 12 hour system) to instead write 12:00 noon/midnight specifically to avoid this.
(In the US) I've probably seen that done outside this thread but I'm not sure. Just "noon" or "midnight" would be more common than that and if numerals are being written, I'd say "12 noon/midnight" is far rarer than "12 AM/PM". In places where 12 hour time notation is used, people are just expected to know 12 hour time notation.
> For some reason people are a lot better with knowing 11:59pm is, vs 12:00AM.
You mean, people have a mental association like "Oh look it's 12:00 AM [= midnight], better get to bed now" because they see these times in specific contexts, and then use that as a jumping off point to extrapolate the meaning of AM/PM as a whole?
While on the topic of names, could we discuss the difference between
given name(s) and middle names and the implications this has on
anglocentric software/database design?
While middle names might be common in the anglosphere, in other
countries (e.g. Germany) it is common to have multiple given names,
which is not the same as having a single given (first) name followed by
zero or more middle names.
Here is a simplified version of how it works in Germany:
Informally, people usually go by exactly one of the given names, but
notably, this can be any one of the multiple given names, since these have
equal status by law (this is different from going by your middle name,
which have other legal implications, depending on the jurisdiction).
Using all given names is usually only required for official purposes
(e.g. on a passport). Note that using a combination of more than one
(but not all) of the given names or changing the order (without doing an
official name change) is not allowed. A person can, of course, choose to
use all given names in day to day life too.
This means that a person with the given names Foo Bar and the family
name FizzBuzz may use any of the following names:
- Foo FizzBuzz
- Bar FizzBuzz
- Foo Bar FizzBuzz
Note that it is perfectly legal for this person to go by Bar FizzBuzz
even though "Bar" is not their first name (of the given names).
Also note that changing your given names (other than their order) is not
easily possible for most people (according to current law), so if you
require someone to give you their full name (here Foo Bar FizzBuzz) for
legal reasons, please also give the user the option to at least state a
simplified version of their legal name for display purposes (such as any
single one of their given names which may not be the first).
TL;DR
Do:
- Allow people to enter multiple given names, even if you also ask for
middle names separately
- Consider that the same person may use a different single given name
for different purposes (e.g. basic account details vs. name details in
the shipping address)
Don't:
- Prompt for the full name (including all given/middle name, or the
family name) unless you have to for legal reasons; if you do have to,
at least let the user pick another name for display purposes, which
may be derived from their full legal name in unexpected ways
- Omit any of the multiple given names because "middle names are
optional" or "not part of the legal name"
- Forcibly abbreviate the remaining given names after the first given
name
- Drop any part of a given or family name if the name consists of
multiple components separated by a dash
There is an open source iOS app called Overland[0] that can continuously track your location history in the background and upload the data to an arbitrary endpoint as GeoJSON.
The "protocol" consists of a single HTTP request and response, so you can easily write your own server software to store the data however you want, which is what I did.
If you don't want to write your own backend, you can also just use the server software[1] the author of the app uses, which is also open source.
It's a real shame, Ubuntu used to be my go-to distro, but for me this is the last straw in the history of shady things Canonical has done.
One of the things I liked most about Ubuntu is that the installation process is incredibly easy and everything "just works". Does anyone know a good alternative?
I'd love to go all in on Alpine, but using it on the desktop doesn't exactly spark joy.
Desktop: I don't know a single person who went to Arch Linux and regretted it. There is a slight learning curve but nothing a HN reader couldn't deal with.
"Just works" type desktop: Don't use linux. Personally, Arch is my go-to desktop and IMO if you can't deal with that, just use macOS or something. There's lots of things that don't "just work" on Linux even today. Bluetooth audio for example has a lot of problems and those will be present cross-distro.
The distros have less and less meaning nowadays, they're just what software is shipped in repos and initially. Ubuntu does a lot of custom shit so you want to stay away from them. Debian is constantly out of date but if you don't mind that it's still a solid distro. Fedora has always been pretty good as well but imo is straight up worse than Arch for sort-of-the-same philosophy.
There's going to be a lot of personal preference involved, but I've moved to Pop! OS which is still Ubuntu/Debian based but very clean, easy to install and use, and we'll supported.
It is weird that this is your "last straw". Most likely you haven't used Ubuntu for a very long time and just want to influence others to switch away from Ubuntu.
Why? Could you point me to some other straws I've missed?
> Most likely you haven't used Ubuntu for a very long time.
It's true that Ubuntu has not been my primary OS for a while, perhaps I should've been more clear.
I _am_ still using it on various laptops and servers (and have been meaning to switch back to it for daily use), which is why I'm annoyed at the prospect of having to deal with finding an alternative.
If your argument for using the shell (as opposed to a real programming language such as Python) is portability, writing a shell script that is not POSIX compliant literally defeats the point.
Also, 100 lines of UX-related bloat hardly classifies as "minimal".
> writing a shell script that is not POSIX compliant literally defeats the point.
Your argument is invalid. Even if the script isn't posix compliant you are comparingb portability with regards to the availability of bash vs python binaries on your target machine. Do you have data to support python is more likely to exist in linux machines than bash?
> Do you have data to support python is more likely to exist in linux machines than bash?
That's not what I'm saying. I never claimed Python was more widely supported that Bash, in terms of this argument you should use neither, that's the whole point.
What I'm saying is that it does not make sense to use Bash over e.g. Python in favor of supporting a wider range of machines while at the same time limiting support to Bash environments when you could use POSIX instead which is a subset of Bash and therefore more widely supported than Bash and Python.
Do you have data to prove that POSIX shell less likely to be supported than Bash and Python respectively? Otherwise I don't see how my argument is invalid.
Of course Bash support is larger than Python support (that's what you seem to be saying), and therefore even a Bash-specific script is more portable. What I'm suggesting is that it's contradictory to stop there when you could simply drop the bashisms and go for full POSIX compliance for even more portability.
That said, if I'm misunderstanding you, please point out how so.
There's also the fact that while Bash is common on Linux, it's not generally the default shell for the BSDs or other UNIXes. But most of them will have Python installed. Also it's easier to use Python on Windows than a POSIX shell, though neither is present by default.
https://github.com/typst/typst/issues/188#issuecomment-14933...