My 2 cents worth: I think that whatever format is chosen, file size is an important consideration. If you don't live/work in a major metropolitan area, high-speed Internet connections are not available, and it can take ridiculous amounts of time to download a single large .pdf or .doc file. The IEEE standards are a good example, even on a high-speed connection, downloading a single 200-page document takes several minutes. ASCII is widely used because it is easy to generate, has very small file sizes, and is viewable regardless of operating system or platform. Any successor to ASCII needs to have similar qualities in order to be successful. GIF and PNG files are widely supported, but they also tend to be very large files. At best, if these files are going to be included, they need to be optional. Best wishes. Diana -----Original Message----- From: Peter Dambier [mailto:peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 8:24 AM To: ietf@xxxxxxxx Subject: Why not PDF: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative Format in Addition to ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC (draft-ash-alt-formats) Just try this good example: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/133654main_ESAS_charts.pdf It is a nice promotion for the successor to the space shuttle. Best store it localy before viewing. It is a nice document with wonderful pictures. But building the screens takes me hours. That is one of the reasons why I am afraid of pdf. Cheers Peter and Karin Dambier _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf