On Tuesday 15 August 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> it allows me to turn OFF html decoding of messages (when i want a web browser,
> i'll use a web browser)frankly i wish that ability had never been added to the
> bat either
[ditto with newsreader capability, etc...]
Actually, I'd normally be on that side, except that I have TB
configured to display plain text by default. HTML viewing then becomes
a similar feature to JPEG/GIF/PNG attachment viewing, vCard/x50x
certificate capability etc. Something that counts as a convenient
shortcut that saves me having to save out the attachment, or even the
whole message, before acting on it.
TB, to me, still maintains the crucial distinction between core
features and useful add-ons. If I want to view a HTML attachment, it's
one click away, but normally I can ignore it if I want. Of course the
opposite it true as well - if I consider HTML a must have, I can
configure HTML view as the default.
I use both Free Agent and Outlook Express as newsreaders under
Windows, and although OE has by far the better interface, it fails to
make this distinction between necessary and wanted features. I of
course use TB as my mail reader, but unless I configure OE with a
valid POP/SMTP server it complains bitterly each time I start it up.
So I have to hack around it with 'dummy' non-functional servers or
put up with an error each time.
Thus to me the issue is not the amount of functionality within a
program (although it's a bonus if optional extras are separately
downloadable, which is easy enough to do in component-based
programming) but the ability to choose which parts of the function of
a program are important *to*you* and dynamically turn them on and
others off.
John
--
you gave me something that i could touch in a world where i'd had too much
something i could feel with my broken hands full of lost ideals but soon i'm
returning to you my friend and we'll go where the rivers end in the silver sea
and i'll carry you if you carry me
--
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