RE: Apparently Email Forwarding's Usefulness has Sort of Ended

["Richard Combs" <richard.combs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, since I'm the cause of Chuck's discomfitude, I might as well jump in. 

-- First of all, Chuck, I'm sorry for the spike in blood pressure I caused you. I didn't intend for anyone to make a big deal about my message. What I said was: 

> Chuck Hastings wrote something that arrived with an attachment: 
> 
> <snipped all; deleted message and attachment> 
> 
> This list permits attachments? Now, that's profoundly scary. 
> 
> ;-)
> 

Notice the "smile and wink" smiley? I wrote this at work, shortly after 6pm Sun., after a long, tiring weekend. It was a bit of silliness; I couldn't resist playing with the wording of the subject line ("PROFOUND AND SCARY OBSERVATIONS"). I wasn't *really* profoundly scared. 

-- Second, every email reader I've used lets you configure it to forward messages either in-line or as attachments (don't know about Netscape 4.79; haven't used Netscape in years). 

Personally, I've never understood why someone would _prefer_ to forward their mail as attachments (forcing recipients to open another window to read), especially for plain text messages. But that's just me... 

Of course, if you don't understand the difference between in-line text and attachments, then I can see why you'd be confused and worried about "Email Forwarding's Usefulness"; I'm sorry I caused you needless concern. 

-- Third, regarding Outlook, you said: 

> Attachments had little logos  (FrameMaker, MSWord,
> Visio, or whatever), whereas forwarded messages had
> sort of a plain box thing.  So I can't account why your
> version of Outlook called a forwarded message an
> attachment.  Good old Microsoft quality, I guess.

Outlook does show attachments as "little logos" (they're called icons; the "plain box thing" is an envelope icon) -- _in_the_message_, if you _open_ it. I don't open Framers and Free Framers messages, I read them in the preview pane (they're in their own folder). The message list merely shows that there is an attachment, not its file type. 

There's no Microsoft quality problem here; you forwarded the message _as_an_attachment_. I don't know if the reason is necessity, choice, or ignorance, but that's what you did. 

-- Fourth and finally, I, for one, don't read this list for "a very spirited and serious debate on the future  (if any)  of the for-profit packaged-software industry" -- there are plenty of much better sources for "code wants to be free" rants. 

Nor has this "debate" been very spirited or serious. And I certainly wouldn't use the phrase "PROFOUND AND SCARY OBSERVATIONS" to describe anything you've written or forwarded. Neither adjective applies. 

But that's just me... ;-)

Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
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