Nathaniel,
| ..., but it never even occurred to me to think that multiple
| underline tokens would imply double underlining.
I quote from the document which I wrote in response to the unstated
semantics of richtext, and distributed to this list in mid-February:
Underline
This element type has not been used widely enough to warrant
conclusive comments, but the question remains whether _underline_ is
additive, i.e. that nested _underline_ elements produce additional
lines under its contents.
Underlining is usually used as a replacement for italics in the
absence of the latter, so this may be an issue of rendition for
different output devices, and the two may in practice be merged to
one for any given output device, unless it supports both.
Thanks for letting me know that you didn't read it. The total absence
of serious response from any of the richtext promoters gave me the
impression that richtext was hurried past the review board so that it
could be part of MIME, instead of being adequately discussed and
possibly discarded because it was a bad idea.
When MIME comes up for review, it's mandatory that richtext be given
full and proper attention, instead of the "hey, don't delay MIME" BS I
got when I started pointing out deficiencies in the specification.
Again, I see no point in inventing another document description
language. We have PostScript for those who wish to retain the layout
and other miscellaneous presentation-oriented stuff, and we have SGML
for those for whom the information is essential and the presentation
should be up to the UA. A simple SGML application can be defined for
this task, but it will have to be much more rigorous than richtext
today, and consequently easier to implement, becaus you would know what
to expect. The concept of a "valid richtext document" would also make
sense, which it does not today.
Best regards,
</Erik>
--
Erik Naggum | ISO 8879 SGML | +47 295 0313
| ISO 10744 HyTime |
<erik(_at_)naggum(_dot_)no> | ISO 10646 UCS | Memento,
terrigena.
<enag(_at_)ifi(_dot_)uio(_dot_)no> | ISO 9899 C | Memento,
vita brevis.