4 ms·
Biggest thing about plain text to me is that it's not really a thing. Markup languages generally are not considered plain text, I would not consider code either
by zokier 2y ago
Biggest thing about plain text to me is that it's not really a thing. Markup languages generally are not considered plain text, I would not consider code either as plain text (it's literally called code). What does that leave? Prose and similar writings maybe. But do you include control codes in plain text? I don't think something like ASCII bell can be thought as plain text. The various whitespace characters are tricky question... they arguably are formatting codes, so if we think plain text as unformatted text, then things like newlines don't really fit the picture; instead we should have some semantic markers like "paragraph separator". On the other hand if we allow plain text to include formatted text, then it opens a whole can of worms on different ways to represent formatting.
- poincaredisk 2y agoWe probably understand that term differently. Markdown and code is "plain text" in my opinion (just like JSON and csv and ini etc). Basically everything that can be easily edited using a regular text editor is plaintext. Alternatively, everything that can be checked into and diffed using git. I think this is the same understanding the author has. This rules out special characters and binary file formats, of course.
- zokier 2y agobut code and prose are intrinsically very different, code has strictly defined structure and form in a way that free-form text or prose does not. code is generally tree-shaped, text is generally linear. and so on
- zelphirkalt 2y agoA lot of code calls out to higher levels from lower levels. Does it still count as tree? Prose can also have strict structure.