Re: censored formfeeds

Prescod writes:
 
>  It is the responsibility
>of the displayer or formatter program to make sure that the document 
>looks "nice" on a given device. 
 
In the case of plaintext and pre the formatter 
should not be doing any formatting it should simply pass the
text or whatever through, why should it not pass some characters
through, why should FF be censored. It is contrary to all unix
philosophy to overspecify in this way.
 
>  There should be nothing in an HTML
>document that is specific to a particular device.  
 
How is the <a> tag implemented on the printer - it is very specific
to the interactive platform.
 
> If your layout software is not smart
>enough to take advantage of that information it is a problem with the
>layout software and not with HTML.
 
It is not a question of my layout software.
It is a question of what other people get when they print out
the things that I present on the web.
In a plaintext document (like report from a database) I might put a comment 
"Print this document as HTML then page headers will stay in place"
In Mosaic you can choose to print as HTML but some browsers dont offer 
that and if there is a document with mixed markup text and plaintext or pre 
then I will get all the markup printed so this is no solution.
-- 
Thorvaldur Gunnlaugsson       \           The Parliament of Iceland
thg@althingi.is                \         comp. departm.  Vonarstr 8
voice:354-5630655 fax:5630670   \                     150 REYKJAVIK

Received on Friday, 30 June 1995 11:44:48 UTC