From: abostick@netcom.com (Alan Bostick)
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 94 15:54:40 PST
To: perry@imsi.com
Subject: Re: McCoy is Right! New Mail Format to Start Now.
In-Reply-To: <9412161424.AA02172@snark.imsi.com>
Message-ID: <ovUykyczB0CL073yn@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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In article <9412161424.AA02172@snark.imsi.com>, you wrote:
> 
> Timothy C. May says:
> > My issue has not been with MIME as a transport mechanism, but
> > non-ASCII content, which clearly most folks can't read.
> 
> Far from clear, Tim. Last time I checked, almost no one I communicated
> with regularly was using a machine without a pixmapped display. That
> means that all standing in the way of them being able to read
> non-ascii is the right font sitting on disk, and a program that groks
> it.

The right font on disk and a program that groks it.  Aye, there's the
rub. 

What makes this debate at once so fascinating and so frustrating is that
both sides are correct.

Yes, MIME is the standard that has emerged for exchanging non-ascii-text
data via email, and yes it's a damned good one, properly implemented. 
And yes, anyone with the resources to do so ought to connect to their
Internet service provider through a SLIP connection and be able to
move through the Web with a good graphical browser and view their mail
through their MIME-compliant mail program.  If you can do it, then it is
without a doubt the way to go.

But at the same time Tim is right, too.  SLIP connections, quality
Web browsers, and MIME-compliant email packages are the high end of Net
access today.  They demand either an investment of money (intelligently
spent) or an investment of effort to get the stuff up and running and to
get the know-how needed to do so.  Either of these can be more than many
people who are now Internet users can afford.

I think the people who are berating Tim for his apparent stubbornness
should stop and think for a bit.  It's not a simple matter of "We're
right, so Tim must be wrong."  The people who can look at the matter and
see how the MIME advocates and Tim May are both right, without seeing a
contradiction, will have a broader, deeper insight into the underlying
problems, and be able to come up with solutions that reach farther.

                          | For me, to be a feminist is to answer the
   Alan Bostick           | question "Are women human?" with a yes.
   abostick@netcom.com    | 
finger for PGP public key |      Katha Pollitt, REASONABLE CREATURES
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