Mail readers

[Dan MacMillan]

It's not just terminal mail readers that had the problem ... I'm using MS
Outlook 2000 and your problem messages also appeared screwy to me.  I don't
have any suggestions to contribute, just this observation.

-Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Bart
Silverstrim
Sent: March 19, 2004 04:54
To: FreeBSD-questions Mailing List
Subject: Re: Mail readers



On Mar 19, 2004, at 2:49 AM, Gary W. Swearingen wrote:

> Bart Silverstrim <bsilver at chrononomicon.com> writes:
>
>> No. Nothing. Format=flowed applies solely to plain-text messages. HTML
>> messages already have something functionally equivalent to f=f: the
>> <BLOCKQUOTE> attribute, which... um... quotes blocks of text. When f=f
>> mailers that also can handle HTML encounter <BLOCKQUOTE> text, it’s
>> usually marked up with the same excerpt bars we’re familiar with from
>> f=f. Format=flowed isn’t actually at work there, but since
>> <BLOCKQUOTE> text flows nicely when you resize a window, the effect is
>> the same.
> I've never heard of this f=f stuff and don't have time just now to
> investigate, but I'll keep typing anyway.  I think the problem is
> the same but worse.  f=f is probably spec'd in a new draft RFC and
> many mail readers don't support it, so your correspondents on a list
> list this can't handle it well.
>

According to the FAQ, it (f=f) was developed (IIRC) by Qualcomm to not
solve any problem in particular.  However, this form of formatting
would allow text to be easily formatted into columns readable by any
kind of simple display...i.e., PDAs and cellphones with text messaging
and email, etc. and at the same time it would easily scale to larger
(PC) displays with pretty formatting and proper wrapping.  Older
readers would just ignore the formatting characters and mangle it
accordingly.

Oddly enough (if my current theory holds) where the invisible f=f
formatting is inserted in an Apple app is dependent on the width of the
composition window...which on my iBook really sucks because this window
looks so NARROW compared to what I'm used to, hoping that other
people's mail readers work a little better with reading my posts to the
list.  I haven't heard other people complaining as much about my mail
wrapping at the 120 mark, so I'm hoping that maybe this will make it
easier for others...

It shouldn't be that hard for terminal mailers to adopt f=f, if I'm
understanding it properly...just be a matter of time.

-Bart

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