Bill's message matches my current thinking very well. I've been reading
about SGML, and I believe that I can change the richmail syntax so that
it can be viewed as a minimal SGML subtype (although I'm not about to
actually write the DTD for it). However, after reading a bit about
SGML, there is NO WAY that I would ever write this so as to say "just
read about SGML" -- the richmail definition will be completely
standalone, requiring no knowledge of SGML, but it will just happen --
"coincidentally" -- that the syntax is one that could easily be eaten by
an SGML parser with an appropriate DTD. As it turns out -- I'm not yet
positive -- this new syntax may be even SIMPLER than richmail. Maybe I
can get my richmail-stripper under 30 lines.... -- Nathaniel
PS -- I also agree about changing the name, perhaps to
"simple-formatted-text", about adding some semantically-basd formatting,
notably something like "excerpt", and about making support for this
content-type optional instead of required. Given those changes, I think
the next draft will still contain a richmail-like thing.