karl said:
>   Sure, these ASCII files are also useful for special purposes,
>   but telling us again and again that's the best solution
>   for all books and all times, is highly arguable.

to my mind, the only problem with the ascii files is
the absence of book typography -- bold headings,
justified lines, bottom-balanced pages, pagination!,
properly rendered footnotes, all the looks-nice stuff,
leading to a display that is so boring it becomes tedium.

fortunately, i've found with my z.m.l. that an intelligent
viewer-program can figure out all of that stuff itself,
given a reasonable amount of easily-done "hinting",
and apply it, which removes this "only problem" and
makes the ascii files "the best solution" for most books,
most of the time.

-bowerbird