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Durtal's Gemlog Introduction

In time, I'll talk in more detail about what I mean in terms of plain text, style and talk. But, for now, let me summarise.

Plain text should be straight forward. My goal is to produce base texts that be read by the least sophisticated programs. In my case, these are texts that can begin life on the commandline by the simple formula: cat >> sometext.txt. The texts can be modified by the Unix 'ed' editor and manipulated by various Unix commandline tools.

These base texts can be marked up in various ways to produce a wide range of typeset outputs.

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Plain style is a tip of the hat to Christopher Lasch. Exasperated as a university professor, he set out his principles for writing clearly. The University of Pennsyvalia Press later published his notes as "Plain Style, A Guide to Written English". I cannot say that I have been a faithful student of Lasch. However, I have tried to follow his principles.

One epigram at the book's beginning says much. It is striking in its own simplicity. "...THE WHICH I shall endeavor to mainifest in a plain style with singular regard unto the simple truth in all things", William Bradford in "Of the Plymouth Plantation". Bradford was the sometime Governor of the colony. My ancestor, General James Cudworth, was both Assistant and Deputy Governor of the colony. The spirit of speaking in a plain, unadorned, style was passed down the generations to my father.

What was also passed down was the Yankee taciturn tendency to only speak when necessary. When speech was required, it was to be direct and truthful. Plain talk was prized and dissembling despised. Persuasive speech, rhetoric, was about drawing another to understanding and living out the good beyond mere personal preference. Of course, one had to accept the possibility that it was one's self that needed persuading!