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Write plain text files

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Re: Write plain text files

#221

Post by Anunayj »

jamesgeck0 wrote: post #116
strken wrote: post #32

The nice thing about .docx is that it's a zip file full of xml. I'd be willing to bet that zip and xml are both readable in a hundred years, even if the specific version of .docx can't be loaded into a word processor. I personally use emacs with writeroom-mode and markdown-mode plus some tweaks, but it's not realistic to expect everyone to go learn lisp and build their own text editor.

Yeah, proprietary formats are fine if they're easy to pry open and manipulate. Applications that store data in sqlite databases are also nice. The main issue is just getting locked into a single application because nothing else can read its bespoke binary file format.

think photoshop's psd :) https://github.com/gco/xee/blob/4fa3a6d609dd72b8493e52a68f31...

Re: Write plain text files

#224

Post by cpressland »

usrbinbash wrote: post #216
Singletoned wrote: post #212

I hate to be pedantic[1], but: > HTML, Markdown, JSON, LaTeX, and many other standard formats, are just plain text. On this definition, Word and Excel are just (zipped) plain text files. > Every device, including ones long gone, and ones not invented yet, can read and edit plain text. This definitely isn't true, and it kind of misses the point that there's no such thing as "plain text". It's still encoded in ascii, o…

> that there's no such thing as "plain text" Please show me a computing device that cannot deal with ASCII. And UTF-8 has, by now, reached a level of ubiquity that encompasses almost everything in IT as well.

The Commodore 64 I’m building could probably be taught how to read ASCII with enough effort, but out of the box it can’t.

I appreciate modern computers conform to standards, but that doesn’t mean that these standards have always existed, or will always exist.

Re: Write plain text files

#226

Post by pid-1 »

mro_name wrote: post #220
usrbinbash wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that there's no such thing as "plain text" Please show me a computing device that cannot deal with ASCII. And UTF-8 has, by now, reached a level of ubiquity that encompasses almost everything in IT as well.

indeed, why not use real plain text – not markdown. Homer was able to write the fall of troy and Shakespeare Hamlet without bold text. So what can't one express without?

> without bold text.

Are you sure they didn't use bold text, though?

Re: Write plain text files

#227

Post by urlwolf »

account-5 wrote: post #177

Zim-Wiki is my go-to as it pretty much manages everything for you. It mentions an advantage of not fiddling with formatting but I constantly switch between wiki markup, markdown, and even ini format; I can't help it.

I was a big fan of zim, but I have to admit it's falling behind the times (search is poor, graph view not useful, no collaboration, no mobile, tags are second class etc) so I reluctantly moved away from zim to amplenote.

Re: Write plain text files

#228

Post by mro_name »

pid-1 wrote: post #226
mro_name wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

indeed, why not use real plain text – not markdown. Homer was able to write the fall of troy and Shakespeare Hamlet without bold text. So what can't one express without?

> without bold text. Are you sure they didn't use bold text, though?

maybe a thicker quill from a larger goose?

Re: Write plain text files

#229

Post by grey_earthling »

mro_name wrote: post #220
usrbinbash wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that there's no such thing as "plain text" Please show me a computing device that cannot deal with ASCII. And UTF-8 has, by now, reached a level of ubiquity that encompasses almost everything in IT as well.

indeed, why not use real plain text – not markdown. Homer was able to write the fall of troy and Shakespeare Hamlet without bold text. So what can't one express without?

If anyone in this thread has a talent for writing that compares to either Homer or Shakespeare, then we're in excellent company!

The rest of us, who can't necessarily achieve the desired effect through words alone, need typographic assistance — much like how I would need a bicycle to keep up with Haile Gebrselassie.

Re: Write plain text files

#230

Post by [deleted] »

Singletoned wrote: post #212

I hate to be pedantic[1], but: > HTML, Markdown, JSON, LaTeX, and many other standard formats, are just plain text. On this definition, Word and Excel are just (zipped) plain text files. > Every device, including ones long gone, and ones not invented yet, can read and edit plain text. This definitely isn't true, and it kind of misses the point that there's no such thing as "plain text". It's still encoded in ascii, o…

[deleted]
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