OS/2 RichEdit Control

[Simon Bowring]

>>Think about it ... SS is going to be selling a NEW OS/2 based operating system called eCS ... For every new sale of eCS into the corporate 
world, 
>>and to the individual user there's a potential new customer for other OS/2 software ... and IMO PMMail2000 is the best emailer out there 
for 
>>OS/2 users ...
>
>I have not seen anything about eCS that looks like a new operating system.

Ideed you are right - the only new things about eCS are the name and
the packaging/bundling - if it smells like OS/2, looks like OS/2,
tastes like OS/2 and is built by IBM from the OS/2 sources, then it 
IS OS/2!

>I thought PMMail2000 was for windos users.
Again it is!

>>And guess what ??? Those new users will expect at least a semblance of HTML support in their email package ...
>
>If they are ignorant enough to want HTML email, what is going to sell them
>on eCS, prettier icons?

Again you are right, people *do* want some sort of "rich text" or
WYSIWYG support in email and news etc, however they really badly 
fail to understand that HTML is not at all suitable for this 
purpose - NOT AT ALL! They also fail miserably to comprehend the 
implications of this sort of mis-feature (like restricted and 
unpredicatble interoperability between emailers, and a world-wide 
*multibillion* dollar cost in terms of viruses etc), neither do they 
understand the backwards-compatibility issues; Finally they also don't 
understand that they have been seduced by a sexy looking but deeply 
flawed technological "solution" to rich-text by the use of the
"embrace and extend" policies origiating from the NS/MS browser
wars, designed exclusively to try and generate a monoploy position
in the market.  

The internet community at large has been left in the impossible
position of (ill-informed) users demanding an unworkable solution to 
a fairly simple problem.  Like nukes, HTML email cannot now be 
uninvented, but it's use can be deprecated.

People would like a bicycle that they didn't have to peddle and
used no fuel, but would probably understand that fitting a 500bhp
V12 engine would not even approximate to an appropriate solution! 
This is akin to what people are asking for with "HTML email" (presumably 
because they think that HTML is all about pretty fonts, pictures and 
layout, which are all complex, recent, *rapidly evolving* and very 
poorly implemented features of the HTML 4.x standards - any professional 
web designer who knows his salt, knows you have to effectively write 
different HTML for each browser supported OR ignore 80% of HTML's 
features, *particularly* in the areas of fonts/layout and WYSIWYGness! 
I for one really don't want to have to produce 20 different varients of 
an email message, just to cope with the fact that people use different 
email clients!

If poeple want to email "rich-text", they should send a PDF, PS, TeX or 
word document etc that was *designed for that purpose* (having first ascertained 
that the recipient is happy with that format).

>>Besides, knowing how creative Peter is in developing software (just look at PMView for an example) I'm sure he'll make the choice for HTML 
>>mail an option which can be turned on/off ...
Lets hope so!

>>Let's rally around what Blueprint Software is trying to do rather than being devisive and selfish 

I'd like blueprint to fix the problems with the existing mailer before
they embark on any form of HTML email "support" (other than stripping,
which I *love* - can this be added to the Windows version?). Please lets 
fix the charset, MIME and PGP bugs (at least).

Any form of HTML "support" will be a tech-support nightmare because 
(please try to understand the full implications of this people) there are 
*no* relevent standards, documented or not, for how the *hugely complex* 
HTML standards are to be interpretted in the context of an email client 
(for which it has never designed). As an experienced software engineer 
who works in this area, I can assure you that the potential problems are 
many and very varied. Any email supplier who implements "HTML email" will be 
critisised by users who have conflicting and *irreconcilable* expectations,
they will be placing themselves and their customers in a no-win situation!

Simon Bowring
Senior Software Engineer
MPC Data Limited.