On 6/17/06, Eliot Lear <lear@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I do think that ASCII art has its limits, particularly when it comes to mathematics. But I think a more gradual evolution is called for in this case, with more consideration given to not only the normative issue but all the others Joel raised. Eliot
I believe one gradual approach that hasn't been discussed is using Unicode instead of ASCII. Many of the problems of representing mathematics and diagrams could be resolved that way, while still retaining the compatibility and portability advantages of plain text. The majority of the solutions I've seen proposed would end up using Unicode as their base character set, so why not cut out the elaborate markup languages and use Unicode directly? I just whipped up some sample fixed-width Unicode art, to illustrate the possibilities: Unicode Math ______ −b±√b²−4ac ────────── 2a Unicode Box Drawing ┌────────────────┐ │ This is a box │ ├────────────────┤ │With another box│ │ underneath │ └────────────────┘
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