I wrote
<snip>
Email is SMTP or POP3 - (X)HTML is web. The servers are
different, the
protocols are different - everything is different.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
You spoil your argument entirely there by mixing your network layers:
HTML is NOT a protocol, it runs on top of HTTP, which is an equivalent
transport protocol to SMTP.
Please re-read what I wrote, Mike. I did not say that HTML was a
protocol - I said it was for the web. In the 13 odd years it and I have
been acquainted, this has been the case. The argument is not spoiled at
all; it doesn't even appear bruised.
HTTP is as equivalent to SMTP as a Mack truck is equivalent to a courier
van - they run on the same roads and enable stuff to get from A to B.
The equivalence ends there and you choose the right vehicle for the job
at hand.
My argument is that using (X)HTML for email is a poor choice as many
people use roads that won't allow it to travel to it's destination. It
also consumes more bandwidth than the text equivalent and is a security
hazard.
The default transmission on HTTP is plain text, just as it is for SMTP,
it is only the relative conformity of the user-agents that make HTML
safe to use on the web.
And my argument is that an email package makes a lousy user agent for
HTML-based mail, especially when trying to design to standards - there
aren't any.
This is the *Web* Standards Group, not the Email Standards Group. Yes
there are RFC's about encapsulating MIME types, but there is also RFC
1855 on Netiquette Guidelines (among others), which is still enormously
relevant. A good resource (for the geeky) is
http://www.imc.org/rfcs.html (IMC is the Internet Mail Consortium)
For more info on how to do it successfully, try Sitepoint:
http://www.sitepoint.com/search/search.php?ps=10&q=email+format
And, for the other side, see Alan Isaac's article "HTML Email: Whenever
Possible, Turn It Off!" at http://www.american.edu/cas/econ/htmlmail.htm
"Abstract
HTML email can impose costs on the recipient. Therefore HTML mail should
be an act between consenting parties. Unless you know that you are
writing to someone who does not mind HTML email, send plain text. "
cheers
mark
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