Posted by wolandscat on
URL: https://discuss.asciidoctor.org/Why-does-the-default-output-of-asciidoctor-pdf-look-so-ugly-tp7536p7575.html

Just an observational note.
This discussion got unnecessarily overheated I think.

I didn't read the initial post as being aggressive, and in fact, objectively, it mirrors my own experience from a couple of years ago (when I played with PDF for a while). Maybe a bit direct ;) But we're all adults I hope...

It also does seem relatively clear that the OP is trying to say: that the out-of-the-box PDF profile should look 'nice(r)' (some version of 'nice', as a kind of advertisement). He's also asking if the idea is to play with the .yaml file (it was, last time I checked, but I was not initially sure either). He's also saying he doesn't feel like the best person to set any 'nicer' defaults. Fair enough.

I don't think he is even slightly impugning the legendary work that Dan and his team do to build and maintain Asciidoctor. The true vote on that is people using it, as the OP is.

I know what it is like to put out OS tools, specifications and much else, that took 10,000s of hours to create, often not paid properly, and to have people make pretty direct comments on them. I have been doing this for 20+ years within a global and particularly European community. I learned a few things:

* never take offence, it is rarely if ever intended. If someone is actually trying to offend, it will become obvious very quickly.
* the written word always appears more brutal than a f2f conversation; don't make negative assumptions, they are unlikely to reflect reality
* Dutch people are really direct! They are almost always smiling at the same time. You just can't see that in a written post.

I have no idea if Ralf is Dutch; I just mention it as a by now well-known funny point in our community: there really are differences across how Swedes, Dutch, French, Brits, Russians etc naturally communicate, and it took our members a bit of time to realise that. When some of our committees get together face-to-face, some people can't believe the personalities of people they assumed were offensive; in fact, most of it comes down to different senses of humour, and different cultural norms. British say please and thank you 10 times for 1 coffee; French only once, no small talk. In the US, I have ordered pizza in NY, where if you don't make up your mind fast enough, they start swearing at you, and in SLC, where they are so polite they practically give it to you, and every place between. I never met anyone in such circumstances who was trying to offend me.

I do hope this community can function in a similar good-humoured way, and make the most of everyone's contributions, with a minimum of negative assumptions.