{"id":99,"date":"2008-04-03T23:50:39","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T18:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/document-formats\/"},"modified":"2008-04-03T23:50:39","modified_gmt":"2008-04-03T18:20:39","slug":"document-formats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/document-formats\/","title":{"rendered":"Document Formats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"intro\" align=\"right\"  src='http:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/documents.jpg' alt='Documents' \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"intro\">In FLOSS circles, March 26 is celebrated as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.documentfreedom.org\/\">Document Freedom Day<\/a>. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation. It will be a day of grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is when I realized that people actually use the office packages daily. I almost never use it. According to me there are three options to store text data.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plain Text<\/li>\n<li>HTML<\/li>\n<li>Database<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Plain Text<\/h2>\n<p>The <strong class=\"highlight\">simplest format<\/strong> there is. If there is something I should remember, I just put it in a text file and save it to the desktop. I used to use it a lot earlier &#8211; but I don&#8217;t use it much nowadays due to searchability issues. There are quite a few <a href=\"http:\/\/ifacethoughts.net\/2007\/09\/27\/we-need-more-txt\/\">advantages in using the text format<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>HTML<\/h2>\n<p>If I <strong class=\"highlight\">need any formatting in the text, I create the document in HTML<\/strong>. It is easier for me to create the formatting using HTML code that using WYSIWYG Word Processors(like MS Word). I write all my blog posts in HTML &#8211; perhaps the only occasion where I need formatting.<\/p>\n<h3>Database<\/h3>\n<p>My favorite method to store text data is in a database. I am a web developer &#8211; so I always have a Web Server and Database server running on my system &#8211; so this system is perfect for me. <\/p>\n<h3>Interface<\/h3>\n<p>Remove that scared look on your face &#8211; I don&#8217;t use <a href=\"http:\/\/binnyva.blogspot.com\/2006\/08\/managing-databases-with-mysql-clients.html\">phpMyAdmin<\/a> or any Database Administration tools as the interface to save\/view the data. I use my own custom scripts or WordPress.<\/p>\n<p>The best example of this is <a href=\"http:\/\/txt.binnyva.com\/\">txt<\/a>. Txt is my code snippets\/commands repository. You can view the full story in the <a href=\"http:\/\/binnyva.blogspot.com\/2007\/03\/saving-code-snippets-part-2.html\">Saving Code Snippets<\/a> post.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s an online example &#8211; I also have a personal wordpress blog running in my local server. I use it to record events, purchases, store receipts etc.<\/p>\n<h3>Advantages<\/h3>\n<dl>\n<dt>Tagging<\/dt>\n<dd><strong class=\"highlight\">Tagging is heaven-sent to make information more findable<\/strong> &#8211; any del.icio.us user should know that. I used to install Ultimate Tag Warrior to get this feature &#8211; but WordPress now supports tags natively.<\/dd>\n<dt>Searching<\/dt>\n<dd><strong class=\"highlight\">Searching for data within a database is much more easier, faster and provides more relevent results<\/strong> than searching for the data in a collection of file. Even if you are using a file indexing software like Google Desktop Search or Beagle\/<a href=\"http:\/\/lindesk.com\/2007\/04\/desktop-searching-in-linux-with-recoll\/\">Recoll<\/a>(for linux users), I find database searching more easier. Another advantage of using database to search is that you can <strong class=\"highlight\">create complex queries if you know SQL<\/strong>.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<h3>Disadvantages<\/h3>\n<dl>\n<dt>Not for everyone<\/dt>\n<dd>Let&#8217;s face it &#8211; installing and maintaining a web\/database server is a tad in the geek zone. An average Joe will find it just a little bit out of their league.<\/dd>\n<dt>Overhead<\/dt>\n<dd>Running a web server and a database server is a bit demanding on the RAM.<\/dd>\n<dt>Backing up a little more complicated &#8211; but easier<\/dt>\n<dd><a href=\"http:\/\/txt.binnyva.com\/2007\/03\/mysql-database-backuprestore\/\">Backing up the data in a Database<\/a> is not as straight forward as backing up files &#8211; but its actually easier if you know how.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<h2>Online<\/h2>\n<p>One extra method to store the data &#8211; online.  This <strong class=\"highlight\">data is stored in a database &#8211; but you don&#8217;t have the disadvantages associated with using a database<\/strong>. More and more people are turning to this method now. I did not include it in the initial list because its not a data format &#8211; its more of a data storing method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>In FLOSS circles, March 26 is celebrated as the Document Freedom Day. Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation. It will <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/document-formats\/\" title=\"Document Formats\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,18,31],"tags":[88,94,118,139,197,278],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-database","category-mysql","category-opinion","category-wordpress","tag-database","tag-document","tag-format","tag-html","tag-online","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}