Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 23:59:02 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Unicode and email
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 10:51 PM 3/29/05 -0500, Ted White wrote:

>Actually, no.  I'm not mixing up Unicode and HTML email.  On the Unicode
>posts my top-of-the-screen bar says "Unicode 8" rather than the subject
>header of the post in question.   And the fucker "takes over" my response,
>putting *it* in Unicode 8.  Once one person introduces it to a list, it
>will take over all the responses to that post, and most of the responses to
>those responses as well.   The actual font is a large (14 pt, I think)
>sans-serif in bold:  very aggressive or assertive in appearance.

It's possible that the message is both HTML and using Unicode character
sets I suppose.  Next time you get such a message, could you forward me a
copy?  Assuming that it consists of non-sensitive information that is?  I'm
curious what it looks like as far as headers and any MIME sections go.

I suspect I'd be able to reply to you without the reply being
Unicode...particularly if I run it through the mail system on my VMS
machine.  VMS mail is purely ASCII.  It doesn't even know about MIME,
though it is possible to send MIME mail from it using external utilities.
Even the Eudora that I'm using might be old enough not to support Unicode
very well.  It just barely supports HTML in messages (knows enough to
ignore the tags...).

If you are having problems with your mail reader forcing you to reply in
Unicode, maybe you could try a different mail reader?  There's nothing that
I know of about internet mail that requires this behavior (though I'm still
reading the relevant RFCs and it might be in there somewhere).  There are
lots of mail readers around.  I like Eudora, and the latest versions are
free if you don't mind putting up with the ads.  If you pay them you get a
version with no ads.  A nicer "shareware" concept than time limits or usage
counts IMO.

-- Mike B.
--
Women do come with instructions; just ask them for some.