[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Cowboy) writes: > While I agree in principal, and acknowledge that the prefered method does > not fit my preference, I submit that there are cases ( such as a crippled > system where various word processors will not work ) when ANY meta > info within a document is a bad thing. > > One of the strong points of *nix text formatting systems, has been that > plain text can be formatted any way the reader likes. > > Since pure text versions tend to be much smaller than formatted versions, > may I suggest that both be available ? It's far easier to format plain text > than it is to UN-format a meta document, particularly when the various > word processors available will not work for whatever reason.
I strongly disagree that it is easier to "format plain text than it is to UN-format a meta document". Take, for example, perl's perldoc. The documents are "meta-documents", and rendering them to nicely formatted plain-text is dead simple: $ perldoc -t -f splice However, if I were presented a plain-text version of the above, and I wanted to format it into another format (man style for example) I'd have to muddle around and insert the appropriate meta-data. I guess what I'm saying is, it is easy (IMHO) to go from meta-data to non meta-data. If one needs all docs in plain text for when they cripple their system (how often is that going to happen when the hurd matures anyways? :), they can simply render them to text! Matt
