4 ms·

The original display of plain text email was on monochromatic green "P1" phosphor screens, so that's by definition the correct way. Otherwise, you break the ex

by exogen 12y ago

The original display of plain text email was on monochromatic green "P1" phosphor screens, so that's by definition the correct way. Otherwise, you break the expectation that the text will be green.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 12y ago
You are telling me that you don't recognize that it's about keeping the meaning of emails constant and not about reproducing the exact pattern of photons? Or are you telling me that there are emails out there that only make sense/are readable when displayed in green on black? (Also, BTW, your assumption is wrong - the original "display" certainly also included teletype terminals, and CRTs in amber and white, and all the monochrome display variants with inverted colors. What they all had in common, though, was a monospace font.)
- exogen 12y ago
  I was merely taking issue with your use of "by definition" and "correct". :) It's more accurate to say "by convention" and "assumed", which makes the argument for continuing to insist on monospace weaker.
  - zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 12y ago
    This is not a philosophical argument, but about interoperability in a distributed system. Interoperability is all about conventions, by definition. Therefore, doing what is convention and what is reasonably assumed by participants in the system is, indeed, correct, by definition, unless there is an overriding concern, like security. People have most definitely written mails with the semantically relevant assumption that they will be displayed in a monospace font, and those mails are still around, so the only correct thing to do to maintain compatibility is to display mails that don't indicate support for non-monospace display in a monospace font. It's that simple. Also, obviously, there still are systems around from back then that still produce new emails which also still make that assumption.

4 ms·

The original display of plain text email was on monochromatic green "P1" phosphor screens, so that's by definition the correct way. Otherwise, you break the ex

by exogen 12y ago

The original display of plain text email was on monochromatic green "P1" phosphor screens, so that's by definition the correct way. Otherwise, you break the expectation that the text will be green.

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 12y ago
You are telling me that you don't recognize that it's about keeping the meaning of emails constant and not about reproducing the exact pattern of photons? Or are you telling me that there are emails out there that only make sense/are readable when displayed in green on black? (Also, BTW, your assumption is wrong - the original "display" certainly also included teletype terminals, and CRTs in amber and white, and all the monochrome display variants with inverted colors. What they all had in common, though, was a monospace font.)
- exogen 12y ago
  I was merely taking issue with your use of "by definition" and "correct". :) It's more accurate to say "by convention" and "assumed", which makes the argument for continuing to insist on monospace weaker.
  - zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 12y ago
    This is not a philosophical argument, but about interoperability in a distributed system. Interoperability is all about conventions, by definition. Therefore, doing what is convention and what is reasonably assumed by participants in the system is, indeed, correct, by definition, unless there is an overriding concern, like security. People have most definitely written mails with the semantically relevant assumption that they will be displayed in a monospace font, and those mails are still around, so the only correct thing to do to maintain compatibility is to display mails that don't indicate support for non-monospace display in a monospace font. It's that simple. Also, obviously, there still are systems around from back then that still produce new emails which also still make that assumption.