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Date:      Mon, 1 Apr 2002 09:26:16 +0930
From:      Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Paul Bille <Paul@ebille.cudenver.edu>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Internet mail: formats - Good Work
Message-ID:  <20020401092616.M67252@wantadilla.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <3CA7738D.9020108@ebille.cudenver.edu>
References:  <3CA7738D.9020108@ebille.cudenver.edu>

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On Sunday, 31 March 2002 at 13:37:33 -0700, Paul Bille wrote:
> Appologies to the FreeBSD folks if this question is placed in the wrong
> list.
>
> Hello Greg,
>
> I'm reading and enjoying your Internet mail: formats document
>    http://www.lemis.com/email/email-format.html
> Thank you!
>
> I'm currently sending HTML as "page by E-mail" using MS Internet
> Explorer.  It's an effective technique that produces a pleasing result
> for most recipients.

Does that mean Microsoft users?  It sounds dubious, but I'll take a
look.

> I'll follow this note with a message in this format.

I haven't seen it yet.  Did it come from another system, possibly one
with broken DNS?  In that case it won't get delivered to FreeBSD.org
or lemis.com.

> In spite of the effectiveness of this method, there are problems:
> 1. The MSHTML converter filters my HTML source producing "fat" code.
> 2. MSHTML modifies my code.
> 3. I don't like relying on a third party product, particularly on a
> Microsoft product.

Indeed, three serious problems.

> In defense of the technique:
> 1. The "fat" code is still leaner than sending either images as
> attachments

Really?

> or MS Word documents.

Well, yes, but you shouldn't be sending proprietary attachments to
generalized mailing lists.

> 2. MSHTML modifications are fairly innocuous, manifesting in mostly HTML
> syntax, comments and the like. 3. I'm not a Bill basher, I just don't
> like relying on third party products because I've been burned when
> features change with version upgrades, particularly seldom used features
> or features that are used in an unorthodox manner.

Yes, but they're still (apparently) HTML.

> I'm looking at information, presumably on MIME types that control the
> display on the mail client side.  I've experimented with simply feeding
> HTML source into the mail command at the UNIX prompt.  This produces raw
> HTML displayed at the client side.  Obviously I can include HTML as an
> attachment.  I'm considering a cgi-bin application to format SMTP
> messages directly however I don't want to contribute to the plethora of
> proprietary e-mailers and the tower of Babel.
>
> I suspect you've already addressed this subject.  Any references you can
> provide will be appreciated.

Well, every morning I run cron jobs to pick up things like the TV
program (in HTML) and send it to me as a mail attachment.  Here's the
script:

  #!/bin/sh
  # Get today's TV program
  PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
  # The static page
  fetch -o /tmp/tv-programme `date +'http://www.sofcom.com.au/cgi-bin/TV/category?date=%A_%e_%B&state=Adelaide&fta=1&fox=0&opt=0&TVperiod=Night&category=Movie&lk=sofcom' | sed 's: ::'`
  cat <<EOF > /tmp/tv-programme.html
  From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
  To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Yvonne Lehey <yvonne@lemis.com>,
          Yana Lehey <yana@lemis.com>
  Subject: TV Programme
  Mime-Version: 1.0
  Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
  
  EOF
  cat /tmp/tv-programme >> /tmp/tv-programme.html
  /usr/sbin/sendmail -i </tmp/tv-programme.html
  rm -f /tmp/tv-programme /tmp/tv-programme.html

I haven't been able to get as good a result for gif files.

Greg
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