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masque wrote (edited )

I think the ideal document format would have the following properties:

  • No loading resources from the internet
    • This ensures that the document works offline and avoids potential privacy/spying issues. (edit: It also avoids "link rot")
  • No embedded scripts; everyone sees the same, static content, although there can be some interactivity in the presentation of that content (e.g. show/hide sections, resizing for different screen sizes, etc.)
  • Entire document exists in one file
  • Document is easily machine readable
    • This is important for accessibility as well as editing/interoperability
  • Document can easily be printed to paper if necessary

All of this is easily technologically possible (it can be accomplished with HTML), but there needs to be a standard for HTML documents specifically conforming to these criteria. As is, even if someone tells you that, for example, a particular HTML document will not load any external resources, there's no good way to enforce this; what we need is an "HTML-offline-static-document" standard which uses a subset of HTML but which is forced to conform to the above criteria.

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