On Fri, Jan 22, 1999, David DeSimone ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) said:
|
| Wouldn't it be neat if you could send a multipart/alternative message
| with a text/enriched part, and a text/plain representation of the same
| message? Then anyone should be able to read it, in theory.
No, it wouldn't (be "neat").
It more than doubles the bandwidth required to transist such messages,
with NO increase in meaningful content (ie, the S/N ratio is halved, at
the very least).
It also more than doubles the amount of disk storage that the recipient
has to use to store/save such cruft, unless the recipient *manually* goes
in and whacks off the duplicated material, thereby expending alot of time,
trouble, and energy in the process.
Most other common operations (eg, printing) will not differentiate between
the *real* text of the message, and the extra multi-colored, whiz-bang,
somehow encoded form of the message that is tacked on.
Etc.
This has been debated many times WRT email messages and usenet articles.
Hunt through the archives of the news.groups newsgroup (among others)
for some relevant "discussions" of the idea.
Wasn't it some version of a Microsoft "newsreader" that by default posted
an "alternate/html" version of each news article for awhile (which still
infests the net)? Or was that Netscape?
| Of course, Mutt has no ability to create multipart/alternative messages,
| as far as I can tell.
Praise be to God ...!
/kim
