[OS X TeX] Re: Worrying about MS (was Keeping this list healthy)

[Adam Goldstein]

As the level of quoting in this thread is getting too much for me to 
follow, I will summarize: the discussion concerns how PDF and RTF should 
be described as alternatives to the MS Word document format, since they 
are proprietary, the key point about their use as opposed to Word being 
that they are readable and writeable with a range of open source tools. 
Schremmer (he always signs his posts that way, last name only) asked, 
what would be an appropriate way to phrase a message asking people to 
use PDF and RTF rather than MSW, the initial suggestion being:

 > It is all the more unacceptable to me as all you needed to do was just
 > to copy-paste your document into your email as plain text or, should
 > you have felt that its formatting was essential, to save it as RTF,
 > PDF or HTML, all non-proprietary formats, before attaching it.
 >

My suggestion at this point is as follows: ". . . save it as RTF, PDF, 
or HTML, all formats readily created and displayed with no-cost and 
open-source tools, before attaching it."

Or probably better still: " . . . save it as RTF, PDF, or HTML, before 
attaching it. These encodings, whose standards are widely distributed 
and highly stable, are all readily created and displayed with no-cost, 
open-source tools.

-- 
Dr. Adam M. Goldstein
Email (use "@" for "-at-"): adam.goldstein-at-jhu.edu
Home page: http://shiftingbalance.wordpress.com


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