Plain text thread

>>61933460
Plaintext isn't going away.
HTML is not a good alternative because it has too much formatting and is hard to be read without a browser.
Markdown isn't rich enough to be worth using instead of plaintext.
Even if a HTML-markdown mix does come along, plaintext would never completely go away because it's plaintext.

>>61933534
But by contrast HTML's extra formatting isn't an issue on modern hardware, and everything with a screen has a browser but not everything with a screen is capable of 80 columns of comfortably read text (smartphones).

When was the last time you saw someone upload a text files as just a text file? Even "minimal" sites still use HTML for the above reason.

>>61933577
pastebin.com

>>61933577
>not everything with a screen is capable of 80 columns of comfortably read text (smartphones).

That's not a bug; that's a feature.

>>61933460
I save all my lecture notes in plaintext

>>61933460
html is about as bad as a document format can be.
Maybe it is just because we haven't seen anything worse, I am sure webdevs are ready to create something that is 99% syntax and a framework to generate it.

Plain text is not very flexible, but I would prefer it over html.
A good middle ground is markdown, readable as a text file and pretty when made into html.
Latex is also more readable as plaintext and very pretty when made into pdf.

>>61934652
Unless you also write the reports in plaintext you're not patrician.

>>61934694
The real shame is that for all the "features" they pump into browsers these days that an on-the-fly markdown renderer isn't one of them annoys me.

>>61934707
plaintext compiled with pdflatex

>>61934707
This >>61934732
I write them in vim, feels so comfy to compile your essays

>>61934732
>compiled

Conformed not a cool poppa.

>>61934773
You can always just

cat $@ |                    #replaces all input statements with the content of the file
  sed 's/\\input{\(.*\)}/printf "file%s:\n%s" "\1" "$(cat \1.tex)"/e' |
                            # removes 
  sed '/\[.*\]/d' |         # [stuff]
  sed '/\%.*$/d' |          # comments
  sed '/\\.*{.*}/d' |       # \command{arg}
  sed '/\\.*\( \|$\)/d' |   # \command
  sed '/\\.*{/d' |          # \command{
  sed '/}$/d'             # }

>>61933460
>>61933577
>Even "minimal" sites still use HTML
What is gopher and usenet, Alex.

File: 1443977168128.jpg (11KB, 180x176px) Image search: [Google]

11KB, 180x176px

>>61934732
>pdflatex
>not xelatex

>>61934841
>tranny bullshit

always
bet
on
text

>>61934841
What is that.

>>61934873
an extension of TeX that is compatible OpenType/TrueType fonts and doesn't make you want to rip your hair out managing fonts.

>>61934840
Pretty dead at this point.

>>61933460
sing them all the time for random stuff and logdata files (csv files). You just don't see how relevant they still are.

>>61934895
I never had any problems with fonts in latex.

>>61934919
>Pretty dead at this point.
Just stunned.

I use plain text for all my notes, my dream journal, to do list, etc. I type out my letters in plain text and then copy them into Word 97 for formatting and printing. Plain text the best format because it works on anything and you can easily encrypt if needed.

>>61933460

plaintext isn't real and also

"Programs are not text; they are hierarchical compositions of computational structures and should be edited, executed, and debugged in an environment that consistently acknowledges and reinforces this viewpoint."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Teitelbaum

>>61934962
it's not impossible but it's way clunkier than it needs to be, as a result of cruft from the 80s. Xe/Lua hooks right into installed system fonts without having to use a specially installed LaTeX package or fuck around with renewcommand statements

>>61935005
Unless we end up having to go back to dial-up I can't see them ever getting a permanent foothold.

>>61935110
most pirate groups still use usenet for their initial dissemination

http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/

Reading text-vines can be pretty comfy in the right environment.

test

plaintext my ass
>2009+8
>live in the non-ASCII country
>get subtitles for new GoT because everybody there talks like having a dick in their mouth
>Windows CP1250 encoding

or
>sent plaintext file to my windows-user friend
>complains it's all on one line

>>61935898
Try not being dumb.

>>61935898
If you're sharing text with people you should always use \r\n as it's the most portable

>>61935944
Or MS could just make allowances for two* different types of line ending?

*Mac hasn't used CF for years.

There's nothing wrong with spreading "text files" in html format. Even cDc started doing that toward the end.

Italics in a "text" file.
http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0403.html

Bold in a "text" file.
http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0407.html

I suppose, until there's some alternative, minimal html files are the best modern equivalent that avoids issues like >>61935898, which wasn't an issue when 99% of people were on DOS.

>>61938101
I like the aesthetics of that. Shame about the awful colors though.

Web framework using plaintext for rendering? I've found werc but I don't like its dependencies.

>>61939027
>Web framework using plaintext for rendering?

That exists: it's called <pre> tags.

>>61939027
How about installing pygopherd, it's not a web framework but it provides both a gopher server and an HTTP server that mirrors the gopher content and converts menus to HTML using basically <pre> tags.

Example:
http://gopher.quux.org:70/

So you basically write

Hello world
1Cool stuff    cool_stuff
1More stuff    more_stuff

and a client connecting over HTTP is sent something like

<pre>Hello world
<img src="folder.gif"> <a href="cool_stuff">Cool stuff</a>
<img src="folder.gif"> <a href="more_stuff">More stuff</a></pre>

File: dot_matrix_reeee.jpg (20KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 480x360px

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

>>61933534
>HTML is not a good alternative because it has too much formatting and is hard to be read without a browser.
Maybe if you shit up the document with excess formatting and styles.

How about to fetch plaintext page with curl and pipe it to man? Raw manpage formatting is hard to read, but sw to display it is simple, everywhere, customizable and has formatting features. Dunno how about urls, but extending it should be simple.

>>61940859
It's not so hard. You can do it in vim with ANSI escape sequences.

>>61940859
just pipe it to less

>>61933460
>Is as low as we can go now just minimal HTML?
u mean xml?

>>61933460
I never use plain text because nopepad on my sweet mac has rtf enabled by default and i don't think you can turn it off