--On Tuesday, July 07, 2009 14:12 -0700 Tim Bray<tbray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >...>> We draw some comfort from>> the facts that it does not have to be interpreted by programs>> for display,> > I really hope you didn't mean what that sentence apparently> says. No file may be displayed without the invention of one or> more computer programs. I think that what you're saying is> that IETF legacy plain-text displays correctly in a terminal> emulator (and incorrectly in a browser). This is clearly> correct but many of us feel that correct display in a browser> is of higher utility to a greater number of potential spec> users. With the understanding that I'm not a heavy Linux or Unix useron client machines but in the hope that the community willunderstand the reference, let me restate the comment as follows: If I start with a plain-ASCII string with line boundaries in itif needed, I can get it plausibly (although perhaps notoptimally) rendered by piping it to the user's displayterminal, e.g., with cat(string)or printf(string) Those functions, in addition to being extremely simple, tend tobe basic functions of operating systems or APIs to those basicfunctions. By contrast, sensible rendering of, e.g., HTML, requires that Irecognize the material as HTML and have a sufficient HTMLinterpreter to distinguish between what is to be displayed andwhat are instructions and perhaps what to do with thoseinstructions. That seems to me to be a significant andsubstantive difference. YMMD. john _______________________________________________Ietf mailing listIetf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf