On 9 Oct 2009, at 15:17, Jim McKenney wrote: > ...italics are not available on this list. There are many name-formatting > issues which I would like to discuss on this list, but I've avoided these > because we can't use italics. Without italics, any such discussions would be > unintelligible or very clumsy - and that would no doubt add fuel to an > already potentially inflammable topic. The old timers of the net long ago figured out a by-pass around the limitations of ASCII text, following the advice of the Junior Woodchucks' manual "if you can't go over or around an obstacle, go under it." For italics, you put slashes around the italicized text /like this/. For underlining, use underscores _like_this_. And for emphasis (bold, mainly), use asterisks *like* *this*. The mailing list software will not object to such usages. The huge influx of new people onto the net in the last 15 years swamped this convention and it's now largely unknown, but it's still a useful one, much to be admired for the cleverness of those who thought it up during the cybernetic dark ages. And if you use it, Jim, and anyone tries to diss you by saying it's unintelligible or clumsy, let me know and I will growl at them. G-r-r-r-r-r. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…