On Tuesday 15 September 2009, Ian Tickle wrote: > Yes, obviously it doesn't provide full equation formatting capabilities, > as in LaTeX for example, but at least one can type or paste in equations > containing for example the Greek 'sigma' character (upper or lower case > of course) or the 'square root' symbol instead of having to spell them > all out! For obvious reasons I'm unable to demonstrate non-ASCII text!
Why do you say that? Typing non-ascii text is the same process whether it's wrapped in HTML or not. Here's your sigma: ∑ In fact, your message complaining about non-ASCII text is itself using in a non-ascii character set. Here is the header from the message you sent: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252 I seriously suggest to use UTF8 instead, since you've already crossed the Rubicon :-) > The Wikipedia article on MIME (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME) that I > quoted earlier says: > > "The basic Internet e-mail transmission protocol, SMTP, supports only > 7-bit ASCII characters (see also 8BITMIME). This effectively limits > Internet e-mail to messages which, when transmitted, include only the > characters sufficient for writing a small number of languages, primarily > English. Other languages based on the Latin alphabet typically include > diacritics not supported in 7-bit ASCII, meaning text in these languages > cannot be correctly represented in basic e-mail. MIME defines > mechanisms for sending other kinds of information in e-mail. These > include text in languages other than English using character encodings > other than ASCII, ...". This article is seriously out of date. Most mail transport now handles 8 bit characters just fine. Actually it does say that in the last sentence you quote. > > -- Ian > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: owner-ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk [mailto:owner-ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] > On > > Behalf Of Phil Evans > > Sent: 15 September 2009 12:42 > > To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK > > Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] attachments > > > > On 15 Sep 2009, at 11:24, Ian Tickle wrote: > > > > > > > > Phil > > > > > > Nothing at all wrong with plain text for simple messages as you say, > > > but > > > if you want to communicate a complicated equation (particularly one > > > containing a lot of Greek letters and math symbols not in the > standard > > > ASCII set!) the HTML version is much cleaner and easier to > understand. > > > Obviously I would never try to send such an equation to the BB, I'm > > > talking about private messages. The problem is remembering to > switch > > > back to plain text for run-of-the-mill messages (and knowing > people's > > > sensitivities I always try to do that!). On my client admittedly > the > > > option for plain text/HTML sending is in clear view, in a previous > > > version it was buried deep in the menu options and had to be > selected > > > before you started to compose the message, and the same may well be > > > true > > > for other clients. > > > > I didn't know you could sensibly do equations & Greek letters in html, > > but clearly html can be useful. I would have plain text as the > > default, though > > > > > > > > The other point of course is that you're never going to be able to > > > stem > > > the tide! There will always be people who will use HTML even for > > > simple > > > messages, mostly through ignorance, and it seems to me that if the > > > HTML > > > version causes problems as it seems to be doing in your client, then > > > the > > > easiest solution is to adapt and select the 'by default view as > plain > > > text' option. > > > > > > > I suppose I also don't understand why people composing html messages > > would select a tiny font size, or is that a function of the Mail > > reader rather than the writer (which would seem to defeat the purpose > > of the writer formatting the message)? > > > > Phil (confused as usual) > > > >
