On Fri, 23 Aug 1996 09:43:21 CDT Chris Barnes <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>As you can see from my assumption above (since proven incorrect), I had
>assumed that the & was based on the old IBM Script language.
 
But it is! And just what *exactly* do you think HTML is based on? What do
you  think people  used at  CERN  for text  processing when  the WWW  was
designed?
 
>But the rest of the formatting apparently *is* based on the old
>IBM script (ie.  the ".fo off, .eb").  Do we really need the
>*formatting* stuff?  I don't think so.
 
How are you going to conditionally  include text without .BB/.EB? How can
you make the message  fit within a certain number of  columns in the face
of substitution  of unknown length unless  you do text flow?  How are you
going to  be able  to put a  table where you  don't want  text formatting
unless you have a way to do this? To make a long story short, if it isn't
needed then why  does HTML support it  and have it turned  on by default,
just like LISTSERV?
 
  Eric