On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:06:58 GMT, "FDR"
wrote in rec.gardens.edible:

Have you ever looked at HTML code? It's just text.

Will this "just text" display properly on my TRS-80 Model I or Model IV? I used
to read newsgroups on the IV when it was in "dumb terminal" mode. Would any of
this "just text" you speak of display properly on it or on an old Commodore Pet
or an old Apple or would it display as garbage? HTML in newsgroups looks like
garbage to many of us, just as it would on those old machines I mentioned.

What about ASCII art? What about 50 line SIG's?

What about binary groups?

What about them? In newsgroups where such things are encouraged there is no
problem and all text characters conform to the ASCII standard, anyway; HTML does
not. None of those things are encouraged in this newsgroup and binary is
deleted by many of the servers, including the one I am using. Have you seen any
here?

HTML is a language. That is what the "L" in HTML means. Not all newsreaders
are designed to translate that language into something that displays properly.
It might be possible to write a program that would make it display somewhat
properly on older machines, but why should they? There is no need to write such
a program because a standard was developed and was followed, until HTML came
along in news readers. HTML does not follow the usenet standard. The older
machines follow a standard, the same standard that usenet uses. ADM-3A
terminals are still in use on some business machines, so there is a lot of old
stuff in use.

What would be your reaction if some people advocated use of EBCDIC on usenet
rather than ASCII? I am sure IBM would thank you. What if others wanted to use
Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word control codes for formatting messages on
usenet? The writing is still "just text".
--
Gardening Zones
Canada Zone 5a
United States Zone 3a
Near Ottawa, Ontario