ASCII 


This stands for American Standards Committee on Information Interchange. What it means 

in practice is plain text, that is to say, text which is readable directly without using any 

special software. The advantage of ASCII is that it is a lowest common denominator 

which can be read and displayed on any platform. The disadvantage 

is that it is rather limited and somewhat boring. The text cannot display bold, 

italics or underlined fonts, and there is no scope for graphics or hypertext. 

However, it is simple, can be read online (eg by Gopher or other software), 

and is almost idiot-proof as a means of information exchange