Sean Alcorn - PIC Stuff wrote:

>
> Why is HTML such an issue? If it such a problem for the list, then the
> list server should be geared to simply strip it out.
>
Well, sometimes the best response is, as you suggest, to assume 'dumb'
clients, and simply build a 'smarter' server.

But the instant you build a smarter server, someone else builds a dumber
client.  Since the list server and the bandwidth (which would max a 128k
internet connection full time for just this list, or ~40GBytes of
bandwidth (outgoing) each month) are donated and administered by MIT,
list administrators have very little control over the relative smartness
of the list server.

Since ALL email clients can send a common denominator standard email,
lines set to a specific width (usually 70-75 so quotes don't go to
another line), and send text without markup then general ettiquite has
evolved to these standards.

Furthermore: SMTP servers are not required to send extremely long lines
of text.  We had this discussion in the past on the list (perhaps you
were part of it at the time) and the SMTP RFC is available for all to
read.  While most don't have a problem with long lines, several
subscribers have their email processed by old or poorly designed SMTP
servers which follow the spec exactly, rather than going above and
beyond the spec.  In their case the lines are truncated, not wrapped.  I
don't mind line wrapping on email, my client takes care of it and it
makes certian my lines are never more than 72 characters long outgoing.
But text files are meant to be line wrapped.  Most text viewers assume
that a dos formatted text file does not require line wrapping, so when I
run across one which does I have to manually change it.  Not a big deal,
but enough of a problem that I'll throw it out if I'm not all that
interested.  In the case of a resume, especially one where he's asking
for recomendations it's a bad idea to ask the volunteer to do any more
work than absolutely necessary.

Sure, lots of new email clients allow their users to abuse these common
courtesies, and that's good - put the power in the user's hand so when
they need to use it they can.  But it also means that everyone else has
the right to chastise someone who isn't following these so called common
conventions.

My personal feeling is that HTML email is a kludge on top of an already
kludgey email system.  It increases message size for no additional
information.  Everyone uses different styles, so when I go from message
to message there is a very short period of adjustment when one of the
messages in in a different font/style/size/color/layout/etc.  I use a
high resolution screen, and some people choose small fonts for their
small screen, which are nearly unreadable on my display.  I'm partially
colorblind, and /very/ few people in the *world* pay attention to color
contrasts with respect to varying degrees of colorblindness.  Screen
readers for the blind, braille displays, etc have to become more and
more complex to parse even simple HTML layouts because the HTML editors
common today produce such disgusting HTML - all in the name of WYSIWYG.

To combat this I have a smart client which handles a lot of these issues
(mozilla).  Pine isn't so smart, but it's one of the most common clients
in use at the University of Michigan.  I imagine this is because it's
one of the few clients in the world which gracefully handles IMAP email,
and is a good common denominator for support issues.  Mozilla, outlook,
netscape, etc handle imap, but there are still 'issues' with their
compliance with the standard, and supporting them campus wide is not a
good idea, especially when you consider there are dozens of platforms
and operating systems that are supported, and PINE exists in the same
exact form for each one.

In short, sure, do what you want.  Just don't complain about our
grousing.  We have every right to abuse those who abuse common
conventions.  If you have any questions what common conventions are, ask
the list administrators.  If you want to change a common convention, you
probably only have to convince 10-20% of the list population to start
following it, while ignoring the 1-5% that care enough to complain about
it.  Oh, and if it uses more bandwidth you'll have to convince MIT to
ignore it.

-Adam

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