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Netscape mailer and HTML



It turns out that the Netscape mailer does not allow me to use HTML
conveniently. My best guesses about its behavior are as follows:

1. Netscape apparently will not format HTML unless there is a header
on the EMail specifying HTML coding, even though the character set is in
ascii. The messages that work have a header "Content-Type: text/html;
charset=us-ascii". This header is missing, or says "text/plain," on
messages where the commands are displayed instead of being executed.

2. Netscape sends this header only when using the HTML editor to
write the body of the message.

3. Judging from D.V.N.Sarma's messages, the list server never sends
the relevant header. Hence Netscape will never correctly format an HTML
message sent through the server.

4. Worse, the Netscape HTML editor does not allow the writer to
insert his/her own HTML codes simply by typing them in. Moreover, there
is no obvious way to do so using the editor's toolbar. The
command-starting character "<" is automatically changed into a command
[&lt;] that displays a less-than sign, and the "<" character itself is
omitted. Since the editor's toolbar does not include subscripts or
superscripts, equation-display will be awkward at best. [If anyone
knows how to get around this problem, I would appreciate instructions.
Even if we don't use HTML in PHYS-L because of server problems, I could
use it to communicate equations to my students and advisees.]

Perhaps other mailers do a better job, and I would switch if I knew I
could get better handling of HTML in another program. However, until
someone tells us about one that works more easily, I am converted from
"wanting to use HTML" to "tolerant of HTML." I do like the suggestion
of including a URL pointing to a web page that has the necessary
formatting, and I will do this if I need to post something that really
needs careful formatting. Unfortunately, many people don't have access
to the space or the software resources to use this suggestion, so it is
a mediocre possibility at best.

Incidentally, PC's all have a "symbol" font which among other things
includes most of the commonly used Greek letters. Do MACs have an
equivalent?
--
Maurice Barnhill (mvb@udel.edu)
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716