HTML not so evil (was Re: Eudora Replacement)

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 08:24:37AM -0400, Kevin D. Clark wrote:
> >> Because it doesn't exist on line? I mean, even I could answer
> >> that one...As lovely as ASCII is, sometimes a secretary has to
> >> attach a spreadsheet...  Not everyone exists in our little world
> >> with its white walls and nice rules.
> >
> > If the secretary's company has a website, there could easily be a
> > means provided to make the spreadsheet available from it.
> 
> You use the word "easily" in a way that makes me think that you are
> impractically idealistic.

I have often found that the difference between idealism and realism is
laziness...

I think it would take the average web administrator 10 minutes to set
up a location on the web server to dump the documents into, password
protect it, and teach the secretary how to access it.  Setting up a
more robust, general-purpose solution can, I think, be done in under a
day.  There are probably even existing solutions that can be set up
quickly and easily...

Yes, I'm ignoring all the political BS that invariably goes along with
doing this kind of thing.  From a technical standpoint, this is very
simple, and I don't see how you could argue otherwise...

Frankly, I think that if companies (and people) were accustomed to
working this way, there wouldn't be any political issues...  It would
just be business as usual, and quite simple in fact as well as theory.
But paradigm shifts suck...

> MIME and attachements are useful.  If you want to delete mail that
> contains attachments, that's your perogative.  But to propose that
> people should generally publish content on websites and then just
> email links to that content is ludicrous.

I never actually said anything of the sort, nor do I subscribe to that
philosophy.  The previous poster put forth the idea that secretaries
need to attach spreadsheets to e-mail.  I'm simply trying to
illustrate the point that alternatives /do/ exist.  I'm sure my
example is not the only one...

> So, my brother wants to send me a picture of his new dog.  You're
> telling me that he needs a website?  Give me a break.

Arm or leg?  ;-)  No, of course I'm not saying that.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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