-----Original Message----- From: Ronald Pottol <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, June 02, 1998 9:55 AM Subject: Re: hmm >All true, it is just that not everyone has it yet, and if you like me, set >your default font just barely large enough to read, and then get a message >that is set to be a few points smaller than your default, you have a real >problem reading the text. A problem, but one that's easily solved. Set your type larger, that small crap's bad for your eyes anyway. :-) >But soon I will be reading my email in emacs with vm, and though it >understands html mail, it will keep it in the same type everything else is. And these tools will continue to evolve. In fact, we'll have far more choices in the Linux world than in any other platform. Windows users will be pretty much restricted to programs that handle HTML by handling ALL HTML, and thus will be subject to the whims of doofuses who insist on using weird fonts, weird point sizes, odd mixes of color, backgrounds, etc. Linux users will be able to choose from email programs that handle it all, email programs that ignore fonts and backgrounds but handle things like italics and bold, and even email programs that just strip out all the formatting except paragraphs. Or, if they want, email programs that just don't deal with it at all and leave the message in an attachment. They'll delete them unread, and one day they'll notice they're deleting way too many messages. We went through this years ago when people starting typing in lowercase, and there were still people with machines that could only handle uppercase. For a while, they would delete messages that had mixed case. Then they had to go out and buy Dan Paymar lowercase chips for their Apple ][+'s so they could read them, because they noticed they were deleting everything. Technology marches on. A large percentage of people want rich email. They'll get it. We can only hope that they get it through a standard, and not through something proprietary. To that end, we should be either: 1) Embracing HTML. 2) Coming out with something that is so much better in every way that it can't help but be supported universally. I submit that the latter isn't likely, since "in every way" includes being small and easy to implement, and you also have to overcome the hurdle that HTML is used for the web which is a sexy and pervasive technology now. My only complaint about HTML in email is similar to yours; people set their font size too small for me. But I'm reading this stuff in a Windows NT email product (Outlook Express) and I could easily choose to use something else if it really bothered me. (I'm on an office PC. Haven't decided what I'm going to settle on as an email reader for the home PCs. Used to use Pine, but I'm not going to anymore because it doesn't deal with HTML gracefully.) -- PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES! http://www.redhat.com/RedHat-FAQ /RedHat-Errata /RedHat-Tips /mailing-lists To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
