Re: Importing images by reference rather than by embedding...

[Fred Ma <fma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I prefer importing images by copying.  LaTeX is a fine document
preparation software, and I encountered some of the same problems
I had in LaTeX when using FM with import-by-reference.  That is,
I delete a picture, think that I can delete the file, but find
that it is referenced somewhere else.

I personally don't find the bigger file size that much of a big
issue, since it's somewhat made up for by the fact that I don't
keep the images around.  These images are generally created by
other data-munging tools.  If an FM file gets too large, I merely
start a new file in the book.

For my purposes, it is not an advantage to have the document
constantly updated because it has a live link to an external image.
When I document something, it is to capture information.  That means
taking a snapshot of the state of information at a certain time.  I
want to be confident that when I look back at information captured on
Aug. 8 2004, it *really* represents the information at that point in
time.  I had the same problem with hot links in WordPerfect.  Having
your document constantly and automatically change according the
anything that can happen outside the document does not give a
comfortable feeling about the stability of the information.  It is
enough of a logistical challenge to keep track of information outside
the document that I prefer more certainty within the document.  An
analogous example from software/hardware development is to take
regular snapshots of the state of design work so that if something
changes and causes problems, you can go back reliably.  For FM, this
is especially important if the captured images represents data plots.

I do not have a problem with PNG versus GIF, because PNG is already
quite compact.  Granted, I'm not sure exactly how it is stored with FM
itself, but so far, it's been good.

So far, I have not encountered the bug which erases all internal
images, but I also archive regular snapshots of all files in my
document (book file, chapter files, cover material, any auxiliary
files needed by plugins, text files that record edits/revisions made
or to be made, etc.).  I keep the 10 most recent snapshots.  If
something goes wrong, I can drop back to the last snapshot and
retrieve any damaged files, then bring them back up-to-date.  Never a
pleasant task, but it hasn't been necessary so far.  Having such a
history of the state of projects has been helpful in other ways, when
I made big, questionable changes.  I can go back and compare.

Fred
-- 
Fred Ma
Dept. of Electronics, Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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