Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!nrcvax!ihm
From: ihm@NRC.COM (Ian H. Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  About RFCs in Postscript and Ascii
Keywords: RFC, PostScript, PlainText, ASCII
Message-ID: <465@nrcvax.NRC.COM>
Date: 5 Feb 90 17:27:41 GMT
References: <9002041441.AA28081@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: ihm@nrcvax.UUCP (Ian H. Merritt)
Organization: The Frobboz Magic Dungeon Co., Inc.
Lines: 35

haverty@BBN.COM (Jack Haverty) says:
>Some documents will be very difficult to understand with only ascii
>content, e.g., documents with diagrams, graphs, and other pictorial
>information.
>
>Request for clarification: is the intent of this policy to create ascii
>images of RFCs which are complete and understandable in isolation, or
>to create ascii versions of RFCs for ease of computer searching, extraction
>of text, and the like?
>
>Jack

Jack, I have access to a PostScript printer.  It is tough to grep
through a paper copy of an RFC, no matter how 'pretty' it may be.  The
PostScript format files are of little use in this regard as well.

For my purposes and per many of the other comments I read in the
initial flurry of complaints spawned by the first few PostScript-only
RFC's, it is this (computer searching as you suggest in your question)
that is most important about plaintext.  Once the RFC has been
mechanically identified, we can get a paper copy.

Also, it is useful to be able to include quotes from the RFC in E-mail
without having to type them in from a paper copy (extraction, as you
also suggest in your question).  Retyping, after all would somewhat
defeat the purpose of this marvelous electronic communication system
we all know and love.

	-i

Ps: Thank you Jon Postel.

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