[Linux-aus] linux.conf.au 2008: Registrations Open

[Kim Hawtin]

Leon Brooks LinuxAus wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 October 2007 08:21:54 Bret Busby wrote:
>> I don't worry about things like kanji character sets or upside
>> down question marks and other confusing characters.

to be honest this is 2007, not 1987.
this is a linux list, not a $(1987-UNIX-LIST)

but yes, i still have a green VDU on my desk at work and use it.
along with a few at home to run the switches, mincom, sparcs,
DECserver & vaxen...

> An inverse '?' simply means that your email client lacked the
> ability to display that character. Some of that is carelessness
> on the sender's part (using "smart quotes" for example) but
> the sender can hardly sit still & take the blame for everything.

> Andrew's ThunderBird-on-Windows email works perfectly in
> KMail-on-Ubuntu-Fiesty here, plus I've seen no other complaint
> about it, so I think that democratically we've chosen the person
> weilding the problem.

i use both mutt when i don't have a sane X server handy or on slow link
or while mobile and i use thunderbird for doing day to day work related
things. i have to live in webmail hell from time to time to a busted
freebsd ssl supported imap server (speaking of living in the past)...

its funny how debian supports more SSL/TLS modes that Ubuntu does
but thats another story...

> Since the problem will get worse as your standards remain static
> & effectively obsolete, the only person with the power to resolve
> such an issue is your fine self.
> 
> Try a later version of PINE, or install whatever it lacks by way
> of MIME support tools, will be your most truly productive
> approach, I think. That & carefully considering other email
> clients, although reading between the lines, you're quite
> wedded to the system by now.

mutt is a nice way of living in the past ;)
but still being able to keep up with the issues of UTF-8 and other
nasties like HTML mail =)

> A true-hearted FOSS approach would be to grab the source &
> bolt on any missing pieces, then pblish the patches when it
> works. That calls to mind words about hearers, doers & justice.

well at least with mutt you can hack your .muttrc file and
stay sane without having to recompile too much ;)
and there are plenty of examples and howtos about .muttrc files.
there is also a nice postscript printing thing like i used to use
in pine in 1994-ish

if you need a modern *sane* text news reader, try slrn.
its the 'mutt' of news readers[1] ;)

cheers,

Kim
[1] ei, its very good =) and very configurable
-- 
Operating Systems, Services and Operations
Information Technology Services, The University of Adelaide
kim.hawtin at adelaide.edu.au