Removal of my brain

Joseph S D Yao jsdy at center.osis.gov
Thu Sep 21 00:00:16 UTC 2006


On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 05:04:53PM -0400, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:23:46 EDT, Todd Vierling said:
> 
> > Which is just one of the reasons that the MIME type
> > "multipart/alternative" exists.  Sane MUAs that wish to send HTML also
> > send a text/plain alternative segment in the same MIME stream.
> 
> Vernon Schreyer made a very good point years ago that multipart/alternative
> is fundementally busticated, because there's two options:
...


I have been seeing a lot of a third option: the text part is either
empty, contains filler, or says [essentially], "Your mail reader is
broken, get one that reads HTML."  These are all just wrong.  And no
longer limited to SPAM or malware, lest someone suggest that.


...
> In either case, sending both plain and html versions is boneheaded and wrong. :)


A case may be made that at least it's an attempt.  Some MUAs will at
least flag where they have had to elide content.

Remember that not everybody communicates/learns in the same way.  Some
need the pretty pictures.  Some need to avoid them, and stick to text.


-- 
Joe Yao
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