MIME

[Kriton Kyrimis]

OLIVIER:

> I don't know what MIME stands for exactly,

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.

> but it has to do with the possibility
> of  adding html things to your message-- font, italics, background, ...

Actually, it has to do with sending multiple files of various types
in a single message.  In this particular case, the mailer sends, in
addition to the plain text version of your message, a second version
in HTML form. Many mail readers recognize that this is an alternative,
better version of the message, and display that instead of the plain
text version. However, the actual message is the plain text version,
which can be displayed by all mail readers.

The problem with mailing list servers is when it comes to digests. While
people receiving individual messages perceive no problem with messages
containing HTML, and are no doubt wondering what all the fuss is about
whenever they see complaints on the subject, people reciving the digests
receive a concatenation of messages, which appears as a mixture of readable
text and what Don called computer gibberish, the latter being the HTML
attachments, which are not supposed to be read that way!

	Kriton	(e-mail: kyrimis at cti.gr)
	      	(WWW:    http://dias.cti.gr/~kyrimis)
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"Oh, it's just the unknown, then!"
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