[r-t] Plain text

[Richard Smith]

John Camp wrote:

> At 18:52 on 20 September 2004, Mark Davies wrote:
>
> > I've got a suspicion that plain-text isn't going to be sufficient for
> > Richard for very long...
>
> You can use html on this list, for that precise reason.

Unfortunately, I don't think (plain) HTML is much better.
It might allow me to do subscripts and superscripts more
easily, but that's about it.  I can use mathematical symbols
equally easily in plain text as HTML -- the Unicode
character set includes more mathematical symbols than I can
imagine (at least this late in the evening).  But it doesn't
change the fact that many mail clients will render them
unreadable.

In a few years' time, maybe mail clients will allow me to
write in a combination of MathML and XHTML.  The latest
version of Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client already
supports this, but (I think) it's the only one.  I think,
though, for the moment, it's best to stick to plain text
renderings of formulae.

Richard