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> How would you support formatted text in email, then? RFC 1896 specifies text/enriched: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1896 https://datatracker.ietf
by rauhl 5y ago
> How would you support formatted text in email, then?
RFC 1896 specifies text/enriched: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1896 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1896
And of course nowadays there is Markdown, which basically codifies a lot of earlier plain-text formatting conventions.
> Please don't say "there shouldn't be formatted text in email." That's not a reasonable position.
I don’t know about that, really. We got by fine with plain text messages for decades, and the formatting conventions were good enough to convey meaning and nuance.
- breakfastduck 5y agoWe got by fine for thousands of years without computers at all
- cezart 5y agoIf by fine you mean the life style people had in the 12th century, I’ll pass and stick with computers..
- breakfastduck 5y agoI was making the point that surviving without something in the past or currently is no reason not to improve it.
- rauhl 5y agoImprovements are awesome! That’s why I linked to the text/enriched RFC. I really wonder if anyone who downvoted actually read it, or just emotionally reacted. I don’t think that HTML emails are really an improvement: full-fledged HTML engines bring in too many opportunities for exploits and privacy loss. They definitely add capability, but at too high a cost IMHO. In general, I think that our industry would benefit from asking ‘can we?’ less and instead asking ‘ought we?’ more.
- breakfastduck 5y agoCan't argue with your final point at all. However, my thread is more "can we do it differently?" instead of "maybe we shouldn't do it at all" I agree, HTML isn't right for email. Some different approach, possibly a markdown variant, with decent style support (basic css like background colours, fonts, like markdown themes in a code editor), why not explore that. There's no reason emails need to be plain. RTF is a horrible format, markdown is much more prevalent and easy to make a simple UI formatter that obeys the standard for non technical users.
- ubermonkey 5y ago"We got by" is a bad argument. Once email was in wide use by the general public, easy formatting was inevitable. HTML was everywhere, and so was the path of least resistance. I thought it awful at the time, but "at the time" was literally more than two decades ago. HTML email is fine. MOST mail I get, professionally, has some formatting in it now. MOST mail I send probably does, too, to increase what a mentor of mine used to call "scan value." Could I put all that in a Word doc and email THAT instead? Sure. But that would be a huge pain in the ass.