From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Wed Jun 06 2001 - 04:08:19 MDT
It appears as if "Smigrodzki, Rafal" <SmigrodzkiR@MSX.UPMC.EDU> wrote:
|
>SNIP<
|I am sorry if my emails cause headaches and eye strain on some mail readers
|but I am actually sending them in plain text from my PC. I talked to our PC
|support and they say my client is correctly configured. As far as I can tell
|my posts show in both plain text and HTML (or MIME or whatever) on the
|extropians list. I doubt that I can fix that on my own. Do you have any
|ideas?
>SNIP<
|------_=_NextPart_001_01C0EDEC.01DBCA20
|Content-Type: text/html;
| charset="iso-8859-1"
|Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
|
>SNIP<
|------_=_NextPart_001_01C0EDEC.01DBCA20--
Contents:
A. Summary of global Internet rules.
B. Summary of local mailing list rules.
C. Conclusion on the matter.
D. Ideas.
A. Your e-mail arrived in MIME format ``multipart/alternative''.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
The multipart/alternative type is syntactically identical to
multipart/mixed, but the semantics are different. In
particular, each of the parts is an "alternative" version of
the same information. User agents should recognize that the
content of the various parts are interchangeable. The user
agent should either choose the "best" type based on the
user's environment and preferences, or offer the user the
available alternatives. In general, choosing the best type
means displaying only the LAST part that can be displayed.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
[RFC 1341, "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): Mechanisms for
Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies"]
If somebody sees the HTML code in a multipart/alternative without expressly
requesting it from their e-mail reading user agent (UA), then either
(a) their UA is not MIME conformant, in which case the UA should be
eliminated from the Internet as an obsolete piece of software,
or
(b) their UA is misconfigured, in which case the UA should be reconfigured
to the taste of its user.
In any case, those who choose to use obsolete (MIME non-conformant) UAs
have themselves to blame for their misery, and thus should stop whining.
<microsoft>
BTW: If some operating system vendor decides to not follow the Internet
Requirements (STD1), which are MANDATORY if one is to connect to the
Internet, that does not mean the user can simply claim stupidity of
the rules on the Internet, and start whining.
</>
B. As far as I know, the rules for Extropians Mailing List do not specify
local exceptions from the Internet rules. Thus any MIME conformant text
would be valid.
C. Your e-mail is in valid format, following current best practices.
D. Ideas?
(0) Always use a MIME conformant user agent.
(1) Those who dislike HTML/whatever, should contact a programmer (if
they themselves do not know the craft) for a piece of code which
converts the global formats to their own weird text formats.
I understand Perl and Python to be excellent choices for such.
To upgrade one's own environment to handle global requirements
would seem a more correct, extropian action than whining about
change obsoleting one's mail reading software.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:07:59 MST