I think incorporating a rich text format into the RFC is a good idea.
And I understand the desire to Keep It Simple Stupid, which seems to
eliminate the likes of Microsoft's Rich Text Format as an option.
But it is also true that you don't want to re-invent the wheel. Worse,
a new format, however simple, will not be compatible with the word
processors in use today. How do I generate or recognize this format
from my word processor? How do I integrate this into my existing
document handling system? Do I need RFC Text Format conversion tools?
Consider as the requirements:
o a widely-supported RTF to facilitate the exchange of documents
between disparate systems and software
o a solution that is easily introduced into existing systems
Consider two givens:
o Microsoft RTF is RICH
o major software vendors can recognize and even generate data
formats of their competitors, including Microsoft RTF
Now, consider as the RFC-defined support:
o make RTF-contents available for processing by third party software,
ie. file it
o render RTF in simple ASCII format, ie. display it on a terminal
This means there is no need for a UA to interpret RTF, only file it or
ignore it. This is simple, yet powerful.