Well, I've been watching the exchange.
Let me see if I understand the arguments:
1. text/html (or other html use)
For:
It is supported in some user agents already. If has more than enough power
for the paragraph wrapping.
Against:
It is supported in ONLY SOME user agents already. It is very ugly when
seen with user agents that don't support html.
2. text/paragraph
For:
simple. sufficient. no extra (formatting) data in text.
Against:
New text/ subtype gets mishandled when unknown to UA. (sigh.)
3. text/plain format=flowed
For:
simple. sufficient. no extra (formatting) data in text. does not
misbehave with UAs that don't recognize the parameter.
Against:
yet-another mechanism, when text/html is probably going to take over
(eventually).
Concerning text/html, one could argue that it is only a matter of time
before it will be widely supported. It is probably even reasonable to
claim that it will eventually be the default 'text' encoding mode for
users. I suspect that this will be statistically true in relatively few
years, myself. However, "reasonable" does not mean certain and the
downside of being wrong, even for a short time, is quite a few very angry
users.
If the details of my 1, 2 and 3 summary, above, are correct, then number 3
looks painless, easy and sufficient. sounds like a win.
What did I miss?
d/
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Dave CROCKER
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