On Wed May 12 2004 17:20, Niels Voll wrote: > re: rtf > for me it is less important, who invented it (MS or some other > proprietary vendor), but much more important how widely it is supported. > Or in other words, for me this is a practical issue, not a > philosophical/political one.
I would say the same holds true for the HTML vs. text e-mail issue. HTML is simply not as widely supported or practical for e-mail (for reasons mentioned by other replies to this thread -- security, number of compatible clients, historical reasons, etc.). <snip> > > The .doc and .swx formats and word perfect's format ( I forgot the file > extension), and other higher end formats are much richer and more tricky > to get right, and therefore tend to cause more problems. Agreed. Point in case for HTML e-mail as well, though. > <snip> > > Please understand, I'm not vehemently arguing for using html in our > emails on this mailing list, And for the record, I'm not arguing for text-only. I'm just trying to show both sides of the coin. > but "we have always done it this way" > arguments tend to make me deeply suspicious. Agreed. But if the underlying reasons for the status quo are still valid, things may not yet change. That being said, I personally think it's a very good idea to question the ways things are done on a regular basis. > Reasonable behavior and > rules probably should be dictated by the then current > demographics/desires of the target audience or community. Agreed. <snip> > > Now I'm just really curious what the demographics of our mailing list > here really are. So far on this thread, I have been reading historical > and anecdotal reasoning, but very little hard core > demographic/statistical reasoning. This is actually a very important point, one I was remiss to validate in my first reply. If there is an expressed interest in HTML e-mails, then it would be fair to hold a poll/vote to gather statistics for a demographic, as well as doing a side-by-side objective comparison of pros and cons for each. > I'm really curious, how many regular > mailing list participants (not just lurking members) as of this point in > time - after all, it is May 2004, not 1992 :) - use text only email I'm not convinced that the passage of time/development of new technologies necessarily means that resultant change is inherently for the better -- but I'm pretty sure that wasn't your point, so forgive me. While new technologies may be useful and robust, adoption is the key determiner to proliferation. Remember Beta vs. VHS? The inferior technology won, but it is still adequate for most people's "needs", so it's generally accepted and used ubiquitously. People use first what they are familiar with (and by extension, comfortable), and then what is practical or pragmatic for them. Progress and self-improvement be damned. ;-) I'm as much a culprit when it comes to that as anyone. > use text only email clients for participating in this list. I'm ready to be > surprised :) Well, I do because I have no need for markup in my messages. I tend to just blather on and on in straight linear prose. :-D If you meant console-based clients then nope, that's not me -- I'm a wussy point-and-click addict. ;-) But I have never used HTML because it's never been necessary for me to communicate efficiently/accurately via e-mail (notice I didn't say effectively -- that's a entirely different matter, probably one for my psychologist ;-). > > ...Niels > > p.s. I can't help smiling at the irony for me as probably one of the > older - age, not maturity :) - members of this list, I'm reading > messages from likely much younger members - especially in the > revolutionary world-changing Linux community - arguing against change. I don't think the argument is against change so much as bucking general acceptance. It's interesting, because you started this reply with exactly that point. > What is this world coming to? :) I think about the same as it's been coming to for centuries now. Mostly, full of people who can be really weird sometimes. LOL I enjoy these kinds of discussions when they don't break down into X vs. Y-type flame wars. Thanks for a good one, Niels. :-) Curtis _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
