- From: Daniel Dardailler <danield@w3.org>
- Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 09:52:27 +0100
- To: Jamal Mazrui <empower@smart.net>
- cc: jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> If anyone else interested in W3C/WAI issues would consider promoting > the development of a plain text recommended specification, let me > know. I think it would be a standard worthy of attention by the W3C > and its constituencies. Right now, the W3C document describing Technical Reports constraint only mention the production of plain text, ps, etc, as a "may". The "must" are things like: pass the HTML validator, bear the W3C logo, use the correct naming scheme (AA-name-YYYYMMDD), no broken link, etc. Therefore, it is up to each W3C spec editor to decide what to do wrt alternate formats. Some (like HTML, CSS, DOM) have been using a production line that includes automatic generation of html, ps, txt, etc, from a master template in xml/html. Others haven't. Somehow, given that simple tools (such as "save-as-txt" in the browser, or the trick below) are available, I doubt I can be successful in modifying our process so that the production of plain text becomes a "should", instead of "may". One neat trick Gerald Oskoboiny has added to our server (Gerald used to run a lynx-me proxy before he joined W3C), but I think it's only available to the W3C staff right now, is to add ",text" to the URL you want to see as plain text. For instance, from where I stand, if I look at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DSig-label I get the HTML version, but if I do http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DSig-label,text then I get a plain text copy. I will ask Gerald to turn it on for everybody.
Received on Monday, 7 December 1998 03:52:54 UTC