Re: [Telecom] ASCII vs. HTML (was Re: 1+10D, was 11X and N11 Codes)

ASCII (now ISO) is the codes used for text, including the text in HTML code. What on earth distinction is the 'subject' trying to make?

The subject line is probably referring to the endless "unformatted-ASCII-text vs HTML-encrusted-text on Usenet" debate.

HTML is a problem for those of us who use text-mode/console news readers such as slrn, tin, rn, et al.

"ASCII silly question, get a stupid ANSI"

A "plain-text" message, consisting of *ONLY* single-byte symbols drawn from a set of 95 printable characters, plus 'space', and a line-terminator. as one was limited to on an old fashioned 'dumb-ass key terminal', vs. a message with approximately the same 'printable' _content_, but including a large number of "non-printing" multi-byte symbols that are intended to convey information about the 'appearance' (aka 'style' or 'look and feel') of the message, and which generally fail to convey any significant additional _meaning_.

When an HTML-encrufted USENET message is viewed using a traditional WYSIEWYG (What You See Is Exactly What You Received) reader program (e.g. 'trn', 'rn'), one sees each and every supposedly non-printing 'multi-byte symbol' as a series of "printing" single-byte symbols, with one printing symbol for each byte of the multi-byte symbol.

There's another problem: even though this message is not marked as containing HTML, some borken readers _will_ render the following:

Hot French WinesHot French Wines waiting for you at The Lure of Limousin.

... and that fact causes spammers to put html into everything, including Velveeta sent to newsgroups which specifiically forbid html.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

(Please put [Telecom] in the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)