Info: ISPs, AOL, Fonts, Etc.

Weible (wei...@aol.com) wrote:
> Please do not post ascii art on the newsgroups, unless you designed it
  with a fixed-space font.
 
This is simply good sense. If you don't use a monospaced font, your artwork
will be an incomprehensible mess on most people's screens.
 
> AOL don't use a fixed-space font, but the rest of the internet does.
 
The Internet does not use any font, and I strongly suspect AOL doesn't
either. A capital letter A goes out on the wires as eight signals that
represent the decimal number 65 and mean nothing but a capital letter A to
the receiving system.
 
If someone asks you how to spell "byte," do you reply, "10-point upright
Times Roman b; 10-point upright Times Roman y; 10-point upright Times Roman
t," and so forth?
 
In the past few months I've seen e-mail messages containing a "Face" field
in the header; presumably this specifies a typeface on some systems, but it
is meaningless to most, and each capital A still goes out as decimal 65.
 
Since different systems are equipped with different fonts, the only way to
guarantee that a message will appear in a particular font at the receiving
end is to send the message graphically. This would increase the
transmission time many times over, nobody would be able to search for text
in the message, and many terminals would be unable to display it. This is
simply not done, except by a few clueless Web page designers.
 
The Ladee Vamp (Vam...@aol.com) wrote --
> I'm well aware of how ISPers feel about AOL members.  Just a thought...
 
Ladee, AOL is your ISP -- your Internet service provider. Everyone on the
Internet has an ISP. Everyone.
 
> This group is for ASCII art which stands for American Standard Code for
  Information Interchange.  So bascally, artwork should be kept to that
  font.  But what font is that?  Courier?  Is that what text programs use
  such as Windows Notepad?
 
ASCII is the set of rules stating that a digital device, when instructed to
produce text, must produce something -- anything -- universally
recognizable as a capital A when fed the binary pattern 01000001, a capital
B when fed 01000010, a capital C when fed 01000011, and so on and so forth.
 
Except for the few that contain that "Face" nonsense, e-mail messages and
Usenet posts are free of font information. Even standard Web pages leave
fonts up to the viewer's browser: standard HTML lets the author specify
only things like "strong," "bold," "italics," "title," "heading,"
"monospaced," etc.
 
Many ISPs provide their customers with graphics-based programs that make
everything coming in over the wire look like typeset material. ALL of the
prettifying is done by the software running on your own computer. 

Brian Odom (bod...@cs.indiana.edu) writes:
> there is *1* internet.  can't you guys on aol just change your font?
 
With all the variety, it's hard to say if there's really only one Internet.
In addition, there are a lot of other protocols besides TCP/IP traveling on
the same wires as the stuff we think of as the Internet.
 
More importantly, note that some people CAN'T change their font -- I've
heard that Pegasus Mail, a widely used mail program, uses only one font, a
proportional font.
 
I can't change mine, either, and I don't want to. Straight 80-column text
display all the way -- none of this graphical nonsense, except for the few
bitmaps I download because the text shows they're worth it. I'm here to
learn and communicate, not to see pretty colors and fancy fonts. I don't
need the flash, I don't want to go blind, and I WILL NOT BE ASSIMILATED.
 
So there.                      Dan Strychalski   dsk...@cameonet.cameo.com.tw

On 11 Jun 1996 dsk...@cameonet.cameo.com.tw wrote:
> Brian Odom (bod...@cs.indiana.edu) writes:
> > there is *1* internet.  can't you guys on aol just change your font?
>  
> With all the variety, it's hard to say if there's really only one Internet.
> In addition, there are a lot of other protocols besides TCP/IP traveling on
> the same wires as the stuff we think of as the Internet.

> So there.                      Dan Strychalski   dsk...@cameonet.cameo.com.tw

Very nice description of how things work!  As to the oneness of the 
Internet, I agree and disagree.  I agree that the Net has become many 
differing entities over the last 10 years.  Yes, I've been on the Net 
that long and longer.  I started back when the Net was only available to 
researchers, labs, universities, military and the like.  To those of us 
who've been here nearly since the beginning, all the extra "fluff" like 
Web Pages and the like are there to entertain the great unwashed masses.  
(Don't take that personally please!)  The real purpose of the Net is to 
bring information sources nearer, to create a handy conduit for knowledge 
to pass through. And believe me, I use it for that mostly.  Many of the 
scientist friends I have rely heavily on the Net for brainstorming ideas 
or problem solving.  And many of those same scientists are very disgusted 
that the public found their way onto the Net.

Personally, I think it was bound to happen sooner or later, and as for 
the entertainment value, well, I have found much that is very worth the 
space, this group being one of them.  The very fact that the artists and 
achivists here are so willing to share make them highly esteemed in my 
eyes and therefore more than welcome.  Unfortunately, as we have seen 
here on this list, some idiots think the Net is a marketplace that they 
can exploit for monetary gain.  This is all right in the lists set up for 
that purpose, but to spam ads all over the place just disgusts me utterly.

I for one will *not* perpetuate these ads by responding to them in any 
way, not even to complain about them.  To do so would tell their 
originators that they were noticed and I for one would like those people 
to fall into permanent obscurity.  I will expressly *never* respond to an 
ad spammed to a newsgroup.  My delete key will deliver me from such 
boneheadedness.


On another perspective, the Net is one unimaginatively huge juggernaut, 
headed for who knows where, and taking us all with it.  Even the backbone 
is changing on a daily basis.  The worldwide links that are being 
established are incredible and I find it fascinating to watch where it is 
all  heading.

As for AOLers being Newbies, well, fact is, anyone who uses one of the 
spiffy "online services" is a newbie.  And sadly, as Weible has asked, 
most of the boneheads seem to come from there.  That makes the good 
AOLers look bad I'm afraid.  Personally, I won't subscribe to the "fluff" 
services.  I have a *purpose* for being on the Net.  I don't just surf...

My .0002 cents worth...

ML