On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 4:07 PM, Earle Martin <hates-softw...@downlode.org> wrote: > 2008/7/6 Aristotle Pagaltzis <pagalt...@gmx.de>: >> You *like* reading centered 22px pink on blue mails? > > I didn't say I liked it, I said it doesn't bother me. > >>> There are really much worse things to worry about in life. >> >> By that logic you should probably not even be on this list? > > I count software that actively interferes with my happiness and > productivity, whether by malfunctioning or by impeding my actions due > to poor design, amongst those things. People's choices of fonts or > colors do not.
I can only agree with Earle on this one, especially with regard to HTML mail. Recently, one of the (otherwise very sensible) old-skool hackers I work with sent a company-wide mail discouraging the use of HTML mail, and instead suggesting the use of PDF for documents that need formatting. Because I'm still bizarrely happy with it, and because you're somehow still reading, I shall inflict my response on you all: ======== > Just say no to HTML e-mail. Only use it if you REALLY need it. And, > the vast, vast majority of the time you do not. If you really do need > it, consider if you should be attaching a PDF instead. You bring the funny, yes? You're seriously saying that this: Open word processor -> write doc -> output to PDF somehow -> write mail in mailer -> add attachment -> all readers get mail -> all readers have to download attachment -> all readers have to open attachment in separate app ... is better than this: Write mail in mailer -> all readers get mail -> all readers just read mail in mailer (... except for the handful still using mutt or pine or whatever who have to make do with either the plaintext version or, if they've taken the extra few minutes to set it up, are spawning some other viewer that can format rich text mail reasonably nicely in VT100 or in an external web browser, so no great loss there) There are quite a few reasons why HTML mail is a bad thing. Most of them have been irrelevant for at least the past 5 years, doubly so for people who just want to send formatted mail around internally. HTML email is basically fine for internal use, and not worth switching to attached docs for, because that just causes hate. In fact, I've noticed that the quality of my day correlates inversely with the amount of email attachments I've had to spawn external apps to view. Please see the attached graph for more details. If you have a decent mailer, you'll be able to view it in the mail-reading window, without having to open an external app. If I'd sent this mail in HTML - something I haven't done out of deference and respect for XXXX's opinions - you'd be able to look at the image RIGHT HERE: ... but you CAN'T, it's probably at the bottom of the window instead! Because the mail's plain text! Oh, how I regret formatting this email in plain text now! -- Yoz
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