Encoding italic (was: A last missing link)

[James Kass via Unicode]

Although there probably isn't really any concerted effort to "keep 
plain-text mediocre", it can sometimes seem that way.

As we've been told repeatedly, just because something has been done over 
and over again doesn't mean that there's a precedent for it.

Using spans of text as a general indicator of rich-text seems reasonable 
at first blush.  But selected spans can also be copy/pasted (relocated), 
which is not stylistic at all.  Spans of text can be selected to apply 
casing, which is often seen as non-stylistic.  In applications such as 
BabelPad, spans of text can be converted to-and-from various forms of 
Unicode references and encodings.  Spans of text can be transliterated, 
moved, or deleted. In short, selecting a span of text only means that 
the user is going to apply some kind of process to that span.

Avant-garde enthusiasts are on the leading edge by definition. That's 
why they're known as trend setters.  Unicode exists because 
forward-looking people envisioned it and worked to make it happen. 
Regardless of one's perception of exuberance, Unicode turned out to be 
so much more than a fringe benefit.