chris said:
>   So: send your (list-) answered questions to jonathan 
>   (if he is willing to take this job)
>   to have them included into the FAQ-sheets ;o) 

by all means i am in favor of this.

i'm gonna quibble with something else below,
but i support jonathan's efforts one hundred percent.


>   I would say: ebooks might be a good idea for 
>   publishing and collecting information. 
>   But they are some kind of 'static'.

your concept of electronic books
is entirely too constrained, and unnecessarily so.
(you're probably thinking of something like .pdf.)

the kind of e-book i'm talking about is 
_not_ "static", but is in fact super-dynamic.


>   What I have in mind is a dynamic system 
>   everyone here can use, just in the
>   second s/he needs the information, 

that's exactly the type of e-book programs i've developed.
(i've done varying interpretations in the past few years,
each focusing on a different aspect,
so i've probably addressed any area of your concern.)

and several other people right here on this list have
revealed their visions too, in the form of programs
like easy-doc, text-book, and game-maker.

and, of course, andy's built-in futurebasic help system is still
another realization of this type of interactive, dynamic system.


>   without downloading any compilation,
>   installing it and getting accustomed to it.

again, you're probably thinking about acrobat.
believe me, that's the farthest thing from my mind.

on the contrary, i'm talking about a program
that we would write among ourselves.

this is a futurebasic list.
we're talking about generating a futurebasic f.a.q.-base.
we're futurebasic programmers.

and we're gonna use filemaker-pro?  
or acrobat?

no way jose.

the reason i code is so 
i can write my own apps
and not have to live within the confines of 
other programmer's minds,
(which far-too-frequently seem to be severely misguided).

if we can't find a way to tailor our program
to fit our needs _exactly_,
we don't deserve to call ourselves programmers.
that's what i say.

-bowerbird

p.s.  i'm sure when you see one of my programs,
you'll agree that it will serve the need quite nicely.
(it was designed precisely for uses like these.)

p.p.s.  in conjuction with my "open software" intentions,
i will be releasing code to one of these programs,
so people can use it as a starting point
and then add features to it as desired.
so, i'll put this in the mix about how i'll proceed...

p.p.p.s.  this p.s. stuff is getting carried away, isn't it?

p.p.p.p.s.  compared to my source code per se
(which is spahetti, but has the virtue that it works)
even more valuable is the knowledge i've gained
about how to best structure an e-book system.
please feel free to take advantage of my experience.