ietf-822
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Re: format=flowed : why not use HTML?

1998-08-18 17:26:56
I think the main argument here is that HTML is not backwards compatible
with text/plain and text formats used by common OS's. Converting
format=flowed to format=fixed is just a matter of relabeling (or
unlabeling).

One could consider multipart/alternative backwards compatibility of sorts,
but it's just not the same. It requires MIME structure to work where
format=flowed doesn't.

Also, I don't think we're ready to say that all text on the Internet ought
to be HTML. HTML is just too difficult to display, search edit, etc. If we
had simple HTML editors standard with OS's and tools like grep that were
HTML aware it would be worth considering.

We can almost say all text on the Internet is compatible with format=flowed
because it is basically a nil operation to convert it to the text formats
used in e-mail and elsewhere.

LL


At 6:07 PM -0400 8/18/98, Keith Moore wrote:
I don't understand why we need yet another tweak to handle the special
case of text without line breaks. Why not just use "recipient friendly
HTML" for such cases? Especially since it's already supported (for
reading, anyway) by most user agents.

HTML doesn't have to be ugly, and it doesn't have to mess up replies.

Keith