Why visual-only markup is a silly idea

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1. Visual-only markup

From bagwill@sst.ncsl.nist.gov (Bob Bagwill)
Subject: Re: SGML considered harmful?
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 20:38:23 GMT

John Franks (john@hopf.math.nwu.edu) wrote:

Fortunately the evolution of HTML seems to be away from the SGML philosophy.

Since SGML is obviously on its way out, I suggest the following markup format for those of us who CARE about the appearance of our documents :-)

\hrule
\vskip 1in
\centerline{I {\bf CARE} about the appearance of my documents}
\vskip 6pt
\centerline{\sl by King Canute}
\vskip .5cm
Once upon a time, in the land of MakeBelieve\dots
\vskip 1in
\hrule
\vfill\eject
\end

Personally, I find that this notation lacks precision, and bitmap operators, plus I love reverse Polish notation, so I often create documents like this:

1 0 bop 0 42 1950 2 v 525 370 a Fc(I)14 b Fb(CARE)h Fc(ab)q(out)f(the)g
(app)q(earance)h(of)e(m)o(y)g(do)q(cumen)o(ts)798 445 y
Fa(b)o(y)g(Ch)o(uc)o(k)h(U.)g(F)m(arley)83 554 y Fc(Once)h(up)q(on)f
(a)g(time,)e(in)h(the)i(land)e(of)g(Mak)o(eBeliev)o(e...)p 0 864 V 965
2770 a(1)p eop

Of course, sometimes that notation doesn't put the pixels exactly where I want them, so I usually create documents like this:

image
ffffffffffffffffff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000fffffffff
ffffffffff
fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffef8ef1e6657ce39923c633f
30c3398cc313f31e124f0ce2409c8467ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
ffffffffff
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Bob Bagwill

The editor adds: ‘But if you prefer a synchronous typographical interface like Word, you can create documents like this:’

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@I CARE about the appearance 
of my documents.^M^Mby King Canute^M^MOnce upon a time, in the land 
of MakeBelieve&^T^@€\201.¥ÅA¦n^D§n^D¨n^D©n^D\223^@\267

‘If you don't see why that's both funny and instructive, then you probably shouldn't be using a computer at all…you'd be better off with a typewriter or a quill pen.’ [Ed]. What you're supposed to be doing is creating documents like this:

<document>
  <title>I CARE about the appearance of my documents.</title>
  <author>King Canute</author>
  <para>Once upon a time, in the land of MakeBelieve…</para>
</document>

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