[SpamCop-List] Re: Dubious FAQ entry 166.html

[Mike Easter]

Mike Easter wrote:

> Ideally there would be a set of terms and a corresponding set of
> illustrations of the structures, including the 'illustration' of OE's
> forward function as well as its forward as attachment structure.

Incidentally, and clearly unrelated to this subject, except for the fact
that OE users forward things to each other a lot....

Yesterday, in order to resolve a little 'spat', it was necessary for me
to examine the mail structure of some correspondence taking place
between one OE user and another, which was subsequently forwarded to
some more people.  So, I had the salient items forwarded to me as
attachment, so I could see the originals.

OE user1 sent an html mail with a graphic attached, not embedded.  The
reason he used html was so he could bold and italicize some elements in
his mail.  OE user2 [who was configured to *not* read as plaintext, thus
he could see the html effects] was also configured to Reply [which
includes OE's Forward] in the format in which a message was sent - which
caused/enabled him to forward the missive from OE user1 in 'exactly' the
same body condition it was sent;  namely the content was in html and the
graphic attachment was attached.

In examining the structure of user2's mail, the attachment was attached
to user2's mail.  That is, what was 'forwarded' or included inline in
the body was the 'original' html text condition created by user1, but
the graphic attachment structure for the user2 item was the 'same as'
the attachment structure for user1, namely user1 had the attachment
attached to his html mail and user2 had the attachment attached to his
'mail' [ which had no body of its own, only the forwarded html].

The point of all of that is that OE's notion of 'forwarding' plays a
very useful role in OE users corresponding with each other in html.  It
wasn't necessary that any of these people understand what was going on
with the structure, they just forward such things to each other and it
just works.

If I configure my OE to render the html, and to reply in the format it
was received, if I receive an html with a graphic attached and forward
it, it is forwarded with the 'original' received html condition
preserved and the graphic also attached to my mail without my having to
'do anything' else, such as save the graphic to disk and 're-attach' it.
The same would also be true if the graphic had been embedded in the html
rather than attached, but the structure would be different.

So, that's what 'forwarding' means in the world of OE.


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin