 : A text file can be read on any platform, if the user has a program that handles any kind of carriage return. But no, the different standards still prevail. Besides there is a big difference between different text files. A program that reads UTF8 may not be able to read UTF16, and so on. However, that confusion is not as much cross platform as within each platform. : Is it really necessary to mention that in this article? There is some info at Newline#Unicode. One could have a reference to it, I guess, but from which section?   