docs/144515: [handbook] Expand handbook Table of contents

[Thomas Hoffmann]

On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 11:18 AM, Gabor Kovesdan <gabor at freebsd.org> wrote:

> On 2014.01.23. 16:59, Thomas Hoffmann wrote:
>
>> I agree, the TOC is already too long vertically. Adding subsections would
>> exacerbate the problem.
>>
>> By "horizontal page" I mean taking advantage of the full screen width,
>> for example, by using multi-columns or similar technique. That would get
>> more info on each screen page. Compare the TOC with the x-config.html page
>> ( http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html),
>> which uses the full page width.
>>
> The problem with this is that TOC is a multiple level enumeration by
> nature, which is conventionally listed vertically in order. Using two
> columns may be confusing for people since it is not conventional. And if we
> use 2 columns, what order would it follow? Like this:
>
> 1        2
> 1.1    2.1
> 1.2    2.2
> 1.3    2.3
>
> Or this:
>
> 1
> 1.1        1.2
> 1.3        1.4
>
> And what to do on smaller screens if the two columns do not fit?
>
> I believe that a collapsible tree list would be the best option but that
> requires JavaScript, which we prefer to avoid...
>
> Gabor
>

Top to bottom, left to right would be the normal "western" approach, no?

Personally, I would have no problem with a TOC that only listed the major
chapters. If you want the details sections/subsections) you would drill
(click) down as required:
1.        6.
2.        7.
3         8.
4.        9.
5.       10.

or even

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
etc.

It would require less scrolling, but this might be objectionable to many.

I understand completely your desire to avoid JS.

This may simply be an intractable problem.

-Tom