Re: Text email newsletter standard

Phill,

I would hazzard that the speck is being rolled out due to inefficiencies in 
handling of the very things we take for granted.  I would also hazzard that 
in some clients, the markings are searchable.  I have not yet found a 
reliable way in those systems to search for a double line break or any other 
informable things such as spaced centering to denote sections and such.  The 
table of contents is a rich set that allows one to search directly to what 
they want to read.  This discussion could only be enriched if the 
developpers of the standard were present.

Johnnie Apple Seed

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phill Jenkins" <pjenkins@us.ibm.com>
To: "Patrick Lauke" <P.H.Lauke@salford.ac.uk>
Cc: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 12:32 PM
Subject: RE: Text email newsletter standard


Patrick, I got your apology note on WCAG applying to the Web.

It's your second sentence that even further supports my complaint against
a level 1 requirement against structured markup for plain text:

> What if somebody is reliant on plain text email, due to whatever
> equipment/software they're using?

You, I and even david.poehlman@handsontechnologeyes.com are sending and
receiving text emails just fine without any additional markup or
"standard". Johnny Apple Seed said: "I acknowledge that we need a text
standard." but without any additional rationale.  Sure, we could slightly
improve the usability with some more standardized mark-up for the content.
 But is a paragraph tag or +++ heading really a level 1 requirement when a
line break has been working just fine.  Remember we are talking about the
text content of the e-mail, web page, newsletter, not the header with the
sender, receiver, date, etc.

If I did a quick comparison between the TEN standard and basic HTML, is
TEN really necessary?  Seems like just another markup scheme when compared
to the source view of HTML.  And by the way, why subject the user to all
that funny markup, why not just use the HTML browser to remove it and just
present the plain text?

How is this TEN versions of a newsletter any better than the HTML version
following it?  Isn't <h1> more intuitively a heading tag than +++?

+++E-ACCESS BULLETIN.
- ISSUE 55, JULY 2004.

++ISSUE 55 CONTENTS.

01: Supermarket web sites fail basic checks
- Just one in five offers accessible service.

Section two: 'The inbox' - Readers' forum.
08: Double plight ? developing world issues; 09: Money talks ?
banking tips; 10: Bridge building ? card games


[HTML version follows]

<h1>E-ACCESS BULLETIN.
- ISSUE 55, JULY 2004.</h1

<h2>ISSUE 55 CONTENTS.</h2>

<li>Supermarket web sites fail basic checks
- Just one in five offers accessible service.</li>

<h2>Section two: 'The inbox' - Readers' forum.
<li>Double plight ? developing world issues;
<li>Money talks ? banking tips;
<li>Bridge building ? card games


Regards,
Phill Jenkins

Received on Wednesday, 8 December 2004 18:49:58 UTC