This is not a Mac versus PC thing. Nor is it a Microsoft versus
non-Microsoft thing. It is a discrepancy/incompatibility between the
encoding used to send messages.
Whose fault is it? Everybody who wants increased features beyond
plain-text messages using 127-character ASCII font.
The people who say "I haven't had a problem with Eudora" (or whatever)
aren't getting the benefits of these increased features. The people who
say "I haven't had a problem with my Mac" (or whatever) aren't getting
these benefits either.
In an organization (like a college campus, or public school) that uses a
robust system like Outlook/Exchange, we can do the following things
within our e-mail system... i.e. from within Outlook.
(1) Send messages to each other that include any fonts installed on our
machines, in any colors and sizes, and with embedded formulas, etc. I
can make it look fancy on my screen, and people on campus getting the
e-mail see the same thing I see.
(2) Keep a daily appointment calendar not only for ourselves, but one
that integrates with other staff on campus. I can say, "I want to have
a meeting with persons x,y,z" and up pops my schedule along with x's,
y's, z's schedules showing times each person is busy and free. After I
choose an appropriate meeting time, it sends e-mail to all the people
asking them to confirm their acceptance of the meeting. If they accept,
it inserts the meeting into that person's calendar and sets a reminder
that will pop-up on their computer screen on the day of the meeting to
remind them.
(3) Keep a centralized database of all students and staff so that I
don't have to maintain my own contact lists. After I type a few letters
of the name it can check against the list to see if there are people in
the central list matching the characters I have typed. Centralized
lists are also kept of committees, class rosters, etc. If I want to
send an e-mail to my class roster, I don't have to maintain that
distribution list. The registration system integrates with the Outlook
address books and keeps those lists up to date.
(4) Many of the features available to me in my office are available to
me any place in the world if I link into the system using the Microsoft
Exchange platform and I have the appropriate passwords. Hence, I not
only can read and send e-mails from my hotel room when I am on a trip, I
can interact with my on campus calendar and with colleagues on campus in
nearly the same fashion as if I were still on campus (except the speed
is reduced).
But the problems arise when I need to interact with people using a
different e-mail system. They may have a vanilla system that can't
understand any of my special features because they don't have those
special features. Or, they may have a system as robust as mine, but
it's different, so the systems can't understand each other.
For e-mail exchanges outside of my system, there needs to be some
least-common denominator that allows some level of basic communication
between the systems. At one point that allowed only all-caps alpha with
numbers and a few punctuation marks. But it graduated to the full
127-character 7-bit ASCII, then the 255-character 8-bit ASCII, and began
adding other things such as soft returns, ability to add attachements,
etc.
Unfortunately, not everyone agrees on the current least common
denominator, so an e-mail system needs to recognize several basic
encoding methods on incoming messages so it can receive them and display
them properly. And it must send messages using one of these encoding
methods.
Microsoft Outlook automatically detects many incoming formats and
handles them correctly. It also has several options for encoding
outgoing messages. However, the "lowest" available level for outgoing
messages is plain-text encoded as MIME-quoted-printable. Apparently
Microsoft thinks everybody in the world ought to be up to at least this
level. Apparently PHYS-L is not. Is that arrogance on Microsoft's
part? I don't know. Is it arrogance on the part of computer
manufactures like Dell that it is not an option to order a computer with
a 5.25 floppy-disk drive?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.