Re: HTML: woes

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:19:06 -0500


Its sad indeed to see neo-neo-luddites on an extropian mail list who think
that '7-bit ascii should be enough for anybody'. I think that using HTML as
an email standard is an excellent step up in the quality of communication.

Here's words for warning to this reactionary attitude: "Why would anyone ever
need more than 640k of RAM?", so sayeth Chairman Bill Gates, in 1981.

As one of the most technophilic mail lists on the net, we should be
encouraging the use of as high a quality communications medium as possible, to
push the standards forward.

Eugene Leitl wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Mar 1998, Dwayne wrote:
>
> >
> > I read my email in netscape, and so have no problem with HTML mail (and
>
> Oh, yes, you do have problems with HTML mail. If you have JavaScript and
> Java routinely enabled, reading mail can become downright dangerous. You
> probably also have AdobeAcrobat Reader installed?
>
> Real Men just cat from the mailspool, and telnet to the port 25, anyway ;)
>
> > reading the above-mentioned post), but I too agree that we should use
> > the lowest common denominator of plain text on a discussion forum such
> > as a mailing list.
>
> HTML is not a standard. HTML (especially generated by braindead authoring
> tools) is a pain to read without a browser. 7 bit ASCII should be enough
> for everybody!
>
> ciao,
> 'gene
>
> > Dwayne.