Why Prefer Textfiles? (2010)

[kehvyn]

It's always interesting to me that these plaintext sites are flagged as "insecure" and "risky" by modern browsers. I don't have a good solution, but it reminds me of [1]

[1](https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2018/08/07/securing-sites...)

[vbezhenar]

They are insecure, because your ISP can change website responses and text format doesn't protect from that. So basically browser can't guarantee that you're looking at original web server response.

[childintime]

Turns out text files are a binary format also, with any number of encodings, ever more binary as UTF8 grows, requiring constant updates, hidden by the OS. Text files are just the name for a renderer built in into every OS.

So what exactly distinguishes them? The OS knows how to render them? It's just a linear list of characters? The reliance on a fixed font to allow some form of layout or positioning? Good basis for embedded DSL's, like Markdown?

Don't forget they are a binary format also. Oh, I just said that. I anticipate the day UTF8 will be a fond memory of a big mistake we made in our youth, that held us back for decades.

Don't forget that all of IT is a shit show sprinkled over with dollar paint, much like alchemy was. We don't yet know what the formation in Information is.

[andsoitis]

> the day UTF8 will be a fond memory of a big mistake we made

Alternative that would be better?

[wodenokoto]

I actually agree, and kinda wished there was some sort of "binary" alternative to json that every text editor would open and let me edit as easily as json, because at the end of the day, it is no more binary than utf8 encodings with their number of bits, endians and confused line endings.

[eviks]

The poor readability of the site itself is the best case against its core point

[krapp]

It rather supports the site's core point, because that point is about plain text files, not HTML and CSS. Plain text is as readable as it is possible to be.

Besides, this is exactly the kind of site HN constantly laments the loss of - unique, quirky, basic and rough around the edges.

[orionblastar]

Unlike Word files, there is no chance of a Macro Virus in them. I sent our family lawyer some documents converted to Text by request.

[akoboldfrying]

Weeeell... Ya say that, but:

Many years ago someone "infected" my computer with a "manual virus": A printed-out sheet of paper placed on top of the computer, telling me to delete all my hard drive's files myself, then photocopy the sheet and put both copies on nearby computers.

It was obviously a joke. But in the "modern" agentic era, the same thing in a text file is slightly more realistic as a threat...

[reincarnate0x14]

Comically the use of curl | bash managed to shoehorn them in there, and there were the occasional terminal escape characters that could do funny and sometimes mischievous things.

There used to be something of a game of making specific files that would change screen colors or play songs off terminal bells, etc, tailored for specific terminals or command prompt windows. I remember a few short animated sequences using various backspaces and colors that only really worked if you could expect the text to be loaded at specific baud rates or in specific BBS software.

[hagbard_c]

No macro viruses but if your family lawyer uses some LLM-powered thingy in his workflow it might add a new dimension: prompt manipulation/injection attacks. A good spot to hide these would be at about ⅔ distance inside some wall of legalese at the beginning or end of a document since hardly anyone ever reads those.

[eviks]

You can block macros in Word, so you're only left with unformatted downsides?

[delichon]

I've known people one-shot by pure text, like Atlas Shrugged, The Communist Manifesto, The Bible, The Qur'an, The Selfish Gene, Godel Escher and Bach, etc. Don't underestimate text.

[curtisf]

My favorite concrete example of this is the textually beautiful "xd" crossword puzzle format.

Interesting video story: https://youtu.be/9aHfK8EUIzg (2016)

Data site: https://xd.saul.pw/data

[Twey]

I enjoy the (unironic?) juxtaposition of ‘use plain text files because they are universally understood and will still be accessible in the future’ with ‘stop writing things on paper like it's the 1900s and put everything on computers’.

[textfiles]

This is the most "here is a glass of orange juice - argue about it" post about my site I can recall.

[koehr]

For me this really speaks for intermediate text formats like Markdown, that are easy to read and render, while covering most formatting needs.

[HeavyStorm]

Why not: this looks terrible in my browser.

[keyle]

Just cURL it! j/k

not j/k.

I'd rather read in my beautiful gpu-powered terminal emulator than a website with bad taste and/or bloated nightmare under the covers.

[edelkas]

Here's a full up to date dump of the Textfiles archive for those interested: https://mega.nz/file/RMxlCKDa#gWDISvCcx8wv-1P-eflYyFMc6-Ps2k...

Or if you prefer magnet/ed2k download links: https://pastebin.com/UZNDd564