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

[Andrew Pam]

Bret Busby wrote:
> As you have included part of the header text, if you look at the full 
> header of the message that I posted, you would see that I am using the 
> latest version (as far as I am aware) of the email application that I 
> am using.

It looks like you're using pine, which apparently doesn't have base64 
and Unicode support and is not MIME-compliant.  I recommend mutt which 
is backwards-compatible with pine and has optional pine keybindings.

> When I tried to forward either of the two messages, due to the format of 
> the messages, one apparently displayed as machine code, and the other 
> would only forward as an attachment, and not inline.
> 
> And, that is apart from the unreadable characters.

I recommend you look into the Internet email standards.  Your email 
client is not compliant with current standards.  The MIME standards date 
back to 1996!

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045

Most recently:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

> If the objective is to promote something within the Linux community, 
> and, outside the Linux community, surely, it is more conducive, to use 
> message formatting that is universally readable, as is plain ASCII text.
> 
> If Linux events are to be resticted to particular interest groups, such 
> as evolution users, and discourage others, then, so be it.
> 
> But, I had expected that the objective would be to encourage all, 
> regardless of email application or operating system used, so as to make 
> such events more open and inclusive.

You have it exactly backwards.  ASCII is the American Standard Code for 
Information Interchange, and only supports the English language.  For 
the rest of the world who need to communicate in languages other than 
English, Unicode has been a huge improvement.  All current operating 
systems including Linux have moved towards Unicode as the default 
character set exactly because it is an agreed upon standard that is 
universally readable.  If you wish to exclude the entire world other 
than English speakers and communicate only with people who haven't 
upgraded their software for over a decade, feel free, but don't expect 
anyone else to have much sympathy for your position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode
http://www.unicode.org/

Regards,
	Andrew