The need for e-mail discipline

Paul Gosling's article about e-mail (10 February) was timely, and we need more on this topic. E-mail was not designed for the transfer of large, application-produced "attachments" (ie, stored binary files). The problem of sending such files is what causes 90 per cent of the garbage you receive via e-mail, and huge frustration for all concerned.

I used to send binary files happily and painlessly via my CompuServe account to other CompuServe users until my colleagues switched to the Internet, which, unlike the CompuServe network, can't transmit binary files until they have been sealed in a special envelope which most people don't know how to use.

UU Encoding (or Mime encryption) is the envelope that enables you to put a binary file inside and send it from one computer, say, an Apple Mac, to an incompatible system, say, a Windows 95 PC. But this is a clumsy way to work.

You mention FTP sites, but most people who want to exchange files have absolutely no idea what an FTP site is, never mind how they could use one or set one up.

Other than CompuServe, the best solution for people who want to exchange files regularly is to set up a personal FTP site and use it as a mailbox for binary file exchange. Users and their colleagues could then collaborate by installing an FTP file exchange utility. Hey presto - no more frustration.

The days of struggling with unformatted text documents are thankfully almost over, except in the Unix community.

Jonathan Chapple

jonathan.chapple@equanet.com

I read the article by Paul Gosling with much amusement. As one who avoids the use of the ubiquitous IBM PC compatible as much as possible, it gives me some satisfaction to discover that I can communicate with the world much more easily than many, by using my trusty, four-year-old Acorn A5000.

However, putting my prejudices aside, I feel that one reason why there are problems with e-mail over the Internet is the widespread use of corporate intranets. I know from experience with one of the UK's largest intranets in the West Country that it is easy to get into the habit of sending Word documents, spreadsheets and graphics to colleagues on the intranet with gay abandon, without any thought about incompatibility of software or hardware.

Everyone has access to identical hardware and all use identical software - in our case mostly Microsoft products, unfortunately. Having got used to such capability over an intranet, it is not surprising that people do the same over the Internet, with disastrous consequences, as your article indicates.

Everyone needs educating about the fact that the Internet is a community with a multiplicity of users and equipment, and not everyone uses their preferred brand of software. Despite this, I am surprised that there is as much incompatibility as you indicate. I use a commercial Internet suite by Ant Ltd for a RiscOS computer operating system, with a good ISP and have no difficulty sending and receiving Word documents, even those with complex graphics.

It seems likely that many are sending files over the Internet without the correct file suffixes and file types, even when they are successfully coded and decoded using Mime or UU Encoding.

Tony Lindop

tony@lindop.demon.co.uk

Thanks for the article about e-mail. I am happy to get text files. If, like me, you are lucky enough to have decoders, you still have to drag attachment file names across your desktop into the finder and wait for your reader to work out how best to open it. Often you don't even know what the file is going to be about, and, worst of all, you can end up with an attachments folder full of files called things like 9802UCS pr98001AnnualF.doc 1.

David Molony

davidm@cwi.emap.co.uk

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