don't like HTML email? here's your fix.

[David Gaskill]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 08:03:56 -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:

>> Some might argue that the increased ability to format makes it easier for
>> those that are not familiar with the conventions to read but whether or not
>> that is true is beside the point.
>
>    David, it is not possible to format in HTML.  It certainly isn't possible
>to format in any manner that would have 2 clients render it in an identical
>fashion.  You must remember that email clients only offer a /very/ limited
>subset of HTML and none of it offers any formatting above and beyond what you
>can do with plain ASCII.

Steve, 

Most of the html e-mail that I receive uses bold and italic and different text sizes and 
colours to distinguish blocks of text. The sender does not do this to make it look 
pretty but to aid comprehension. 

Of course you are right when you say that this can be done in Ascii using the 
various e-mail conventions but it is certainly true that the use of colour and text 
emphasis can aid clarity. 

When I respond I follow the format that the writer has used. This makes it easy for 
him to understand and it seems to me that it would be rude and pointless to reply in 
Ascii using > / * etc. So far as I am aware  those to whom I respond in this manner 
are able to read the html that PMMail generates. 

I never initiate any correspondence in anything other than Ascii, not because of 
considerations of ideological purity but because I can't be sure, as you point out, that 
it will appear in the recipient's e-mail client in the same way as it does in PMMail. 

I correspond with a variety of people and businesses in many different countries and 
the amount of html e-mail I receive is slowly but steadily increasing. Used in the 
manner I have described html can make e-mails quicker and easier to comprehend; 
it's not essential but neither is it totally worthless. 

Unlike many on this mailing list my businesses is not  IT or computer related except 
in so far as the machine to which I am dictating this is as vital to me as a chisel is to 
a mason. 

Incidentally I believe that the chisels that masons use these days are made from 
chrome vanadium steel and I don't expect many of them cling to the hand forged 
carbon steel variety ...

David