Jargons of Info Tech industry

[Mike Meyer]

Tim Tyler <tim at tt1lock.org> writes:
> In comp.lang.java.programmer Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org> wrote or quoted:
>> The technial problems have been solved for over a decade. NeXT shipped
>> systems that used text/richtext, which has none of the problems that
>> HTML has.  The problems are *social* - you've got to arrange for
>> people to use mail/news readers that understand a rich text format
>> that isn't a vector for viruses.
> It's not HTML that has problems, it's Microsoft's crappy software.

HTML is a problem on *other* peoples crappy software as well. It
wasn't designed to carry code content, but has been hacked up to do
that.

> Writing virus-free HTML renderers is not hard - but of course
> Microsoft can still screw it up.

Sure - just disable all the features that make people want to use HTML
instead of something else.

> Don't blame HTML for viruses - *every* document format Microsoft has
> anything to do with becomes a vector for viruses.

Which would mean that every open format that MS has had anything to do
with comes a vector for viruses. Somehow, I'm not buying it.

And HTML has more problems than just viruses - web bugs, for one. But
MIME's support for external bodies gives you that anyway.

       <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.