Re: When is a text file not a text file?

[Oliver Scholz]

sebyte <sdt133@netscape.net> writes:
[...]
> However, the command 'html2text -o <newfilename> <htmlfile>', writes
> a file to disk which when opened in an Emacs buffer, (or any text
> editor for that matter), displays more formatting tags than actual
> text!
[...]
> Yet returning to the *shell* buffer and issuing the command cat
> <newfilename>' diplays the file as it is meant to be seen once more.
[...]

What "tags" are these? I don't know the actual program you are
using. But I seem to recall that I once had a program "html2text" or
"htmltotxt" or whatever that procuced a text file as output
*containing ANSI escape sequences for colours*.

Could that be the case? It would explain why dumping such a file on
the tty---unlike visiting it with a text editor---would display it
correctly.

If this *is* the case, then you probably could do something with
ansi-color.el, though I don't know offhand how exactly.

    Oliver
-- 
20 Nivôse an 212 de la Révolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!