The lowly page number • Hacker News Board

Re: The lowly page number

#21

Post by voussoir » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 3:11 AM UTC

cglong wrote: post #13

Chuck Palahniuk's novel Survivor inverts the role of the page number, turning it into a countdown toward the climax. From Wikipedia: > The chapters and pages are numbered backwards in the book, beginning with Chapter 47 on page 289 and ending with page 1 of Chapter 1. This omnipresent clock ended up being a clever, subtle way to continually build tension for the reader.

The Logan's Run novel is similar, with the chapters counting down from ten to zero.

Re: The lowly page number

#22

Post by cryptonector » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 4:19 AM UTC

jbaber wrote: post #20

cryptonector wrote: post #19

Page numbering is dying. Ebook readers often don't show any page numbers. IETF RFCs are losing their page numbers. I don't like it.

It's very irritating because it's the only way to refer to part of a long section. I'm going to have to start referring to paragraph numbers. Ugh.

Yes, exactly. Who cares that page numbers might canonically be for one paper size and not correspond to page sizes on some device? You can scroll or whatever and still use the canonical page numbers.

Re: The lowly page number

#23

Post by wolverine876 » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 6:10 AM UTC

jbaber wrote: post #20

cryptonector wrote: post #19

Page numbering is dying. Ebook readers often don't show any page numbers. IETF RFCs are losing their page numbers. I don't like it.

It's very irritating because it's the only way to refer to part of a long section. I'm going to have to start referring to paragraph numbers. Ugh.

What's wrong with paragraph numbers? They are more precise.

Re: The lowly page number

#24

Post by hoseja » Mon, Apr 25, 2022, 10:12 AM UTC

cryptonector wrote: post #19

Page numbering is dying. Ebook readers often don't show any page numbers. IETF RFCs are losing their page numbers. I don't like it.

Since ebook readers can reflow text (after f.e. changing font size), page numbers lose most of their meaning.

Re: The lowly page number

#25

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 26, 2022, 3:36 AM UTC

wolverine876 wrote: post #23

jbaber wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very irritating because it's the only way to refer to part of a long section. I'm going to have to start referring to paragraph numbers. Ugh.

What's wrong with paragraph numbers? They are more precise.

[deleted]

Re: The lowly page number

#26

Post by cryptonector » Tue, Apr 26, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

wolverine876 wrote: post #23

jbaber wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very irritating because it's the only way to refer to part of a long section. I'm going to have to start referring to paragraph numbers. Ugh.

What's wrong with paragraph numbers? They are more precise.

Porque no los dos?

Re: The lowly page number

#27

Post by cryptonector » Tue, Apr 26, 2022, 7:44 PM UTC

hoseja wrote: post #24

cryptonector wrote: post #19

Page numbering is dying. Ebook readers often don't show any page numbers. IETF RFCs are losing their page numbers. I don't like it.

Since ebook readers can reflow text (after f.e. changing font size), page numbers lose most of their meaning.

Not so. Page breaks can still be rendered or marked anyways, and so can page numbers. And yeah, you're not going to see a whole "page" in one screenful, but so what?