[Cuis-dev] high-speed rich text

[Boris Shingarov]

> You can send a link to the screenshot instead of attaching it.

Hmmm... personally I would not do it.  As Alan Kay explains in one AMA, 
language comes in significantly different kinds: there is speech, and 
there is written language.  The latter is not the same as speech 
stenographed down.

One part of the delight of a mailing list such as this one, is that it's 
written language.  These emails are more than just in-the-moment 
conversations.  [At their best], they are literary essays worth 
preserving.  For example, I keep archives of the squeak-dev and vm-dev 
lists going back 25 years, and find delight in re-reading some of those 
old messages; I find some of them bring new insight today.

How do you archive an external link?  The snapshot Shaping shared, is 
essential to understanding what the conversation is about.  If it's 
hosted externally, sooner or later the link will die.  Now the whole 
archived thread is useless.  So by simply replacing the attachment with 
a link, you have converted written language to speech.

A couple of years ago, there was an article by Vint Cerf in the CACM 
about the perils of mistaking digitally-stored knowledge for knowledge; 
I remember the idea hugely resonated in me.