gardner said:
>   I know your bent is to prefer a
>   non-standard lightweight markup

[snip, snip]

of course, once you understand on a deep level
that it's fully possible for a computer program to
ascertain the structure of a text well enough that
it can apply markup to permit good presentation
by another computer program (e.g., a browser),
you will also come to understand on a deep level
that there is absolutely no need for the markup,
since the structure-ascertaining routines can be
included in the browser itself, and thereby avoid
the markup middleman.  ergo, _zen_markup_...

future generations will laugh at us for believing
that markup was even necessary in the first place,
let alone that we'd codify it into "a standard", and
waste our time, money, and energy to "apply" it...

I doubt that very much!! Mark-up is a necessity of language 

and communication wether you see it or not.

Humans are the most advanced systems and use far to much

information for thier internal "browser" that I do not think

mark-ups will be come obsolete in the next couple of centuries.

regards

Keith.