Re: Encoding italic

From: James Kass via Unicode <unicode_at_unicode.org>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2019 07:35:02 +0000

David Starner wrote,

>> ... italics, bold, strikethrough, and underline in plain-text
>
> Okay? Ed can do that too, along with nano and notepad. It's called
> HTML (TeX, Troff). If by plain-text, you mean self-interpeting,
> without external standards, then it's simply impossible.

HTML source files are in plain-text.  Hopefully everyone on this list
understands that and has already explored the marvelous benefits offered
by granting users the ability to make exciting and effective page
layouts via any plain-text editor.  HTML is standard and interchangeable.

As Tex Texin observed, differences of opinion as to where we draw the
line between text and mark-up are somewhat ideological.  If a compelling
case for handling italics at the plain-text level can be made, then the
fact that italics can already be handled elsewhere doesn’t matter.  If a
compelling case cannot be made, there are always alternatives.

As for use of other variant letter forms enabled by the math
alphanumerics, the situation exists.  It’s an interesting phenomenon
which is sometimes worthy of comment and relates to this thread because
the math alphanumerics include italics.  One of the web pages referring
to third-party input tools calls the practice “super cool Unicode text
magic”.
Received on Thu Jan 31 2019 - 01:35:32 CST

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