Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-sdd!apollo!marc
From: marc@apollo.HP.COM (Marc Gibian)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: PostScript Versus ASCII
Keywords: PostScript ASCII ODIF ODA
Message-ID: <45f40447.18268@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 30 Sep 89 20:24:00 GMT
References: <361@nrcvax.NRC.COM> <[A.ISI.EDU]30-Sep-89.08:17:15.CERF>
Reply-To: marc@apollo.HP.COM (Marc Gibian)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 39

This has been a very interesting discussion, but everyone seems to
have missed what seems to me to be the real problem.  Let me give
it a try ...

The issue here is that many of us have long ago stopped generating
simple ASCII documents.  But, we need some way to interchange these
more complex, multimedia, documents.  The use of Postscript seems
to me to miss the point because it is not a representation of the
document, rather it is a representation of its printed image.

Believe it or not there is actually a standard that addresses
the interchange of these sophisticated documents.. I believe
it is titled ODIF (Office Document Interchange Format), and
is part of ODA (Office Document Architecture).  Rumor has it
that some of the majors in the desktop publishing business
have announced products capable of reading and writing ODIF,
therefore supporting the interchange of documents with ODIF.
Finally, x.400 includes ODIF as one of its defined body part
types, so when we start emailing RFCs over x.400 services,
it is a natural function to send them out in ODIF format.

SO, my conclusion is that a reasonable approach to solving this
problem is to do two things:

1.  always, always provide an ASCII version of all RFCs, since
    as much as we wish it were different, not everyone has a
    workstation, or even a PC, on their desktop.

2.  provide an ODIF version of all RFCs to support interchange
    of the complex, multimedia, form of the documents.

It will be interesting to see what really happens...

Marc
-- 
Project Engineer, email project: Apollo Systems Division of HP
Internet: marc@apollo.hp.COM
NETel:    Apollo: 508-256-6600 x2077
(Copyright 1989 by author. All rights reserved.  Free redistribution allowed.)