Pegasus Mail v4.0 - html mail

From:	David Harris 
Subject:	HTML handling
Date sent:	Mon, 5 Feb 2001 02:53:01 +1300
Mailed using:	Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v4.0, beta 7)

I've noticed from a couple of digests forwarded to me recently that there seems to be a bit of a debate going on about how HTML data should be presented. I just thought I'd throw my 5c worth into the pot for consideration at this point...

Firstly, love it or hate it, HTML mail is here to stay - I'm afraid this is beyond debate at this stage. Things that people quite reasonably expect to be able to do these days, like pasting a picture into a mail message, or adding a little formatting, are only possible in HTML with any chance of interoperability. One of the areas I am lavishing extraordinary effort on in Pegasus Mail v4.0 is the way it handles HTML - it can both display and generate HTML, and the generation capabilities are quite advanced, including tables, line drawing and embedded pictures. Needless to say, I'm only supporting safe HTML - no scripts, no ActiveX controls, no Java Applets... Even though taking this approach inevitably results in HTML display that "isn't as good as XXX", I'm not interested in exposing my userbase to the same problems that XXX will necessarily have as a consequence.

Those of you who have used Pegasus Mail for a long time probably don't think much of its HTML capabilities - it's an area where we've taken a lot of criticism for a long time. In v4.0, though, I believe our HTML display is very nearly as good as a browser, and in the vast majority of cases it should no longer be necessary display complex HTML externally.

Now, that's all well and good, but there's a significant body of mail users who simply are not interested in HTML. I haven't forgotten these people, and I don't want you to think that the emphasis on HTML support in v4.0 comes at the expense of ASCII mail in any way - you will be able to turn the HTML editing off altogether, and the options for presenting plain data (as opposed to rich text data) will remain as they are, or will even be enhanced. That just leaves the problem of what to do with mail that is *pure* HTML - no textual version.

I notice a number of you suggesting that I simply strip the HTML tags and display the resulting ASCII data... This would probably work for very simple HTML messages, but for most things, it would result in mail that was incomprehensible - if you want to see what I mean, try finding some HTML containing a table and strip out all the tags: the result is chaotic.
I haven't completely discounted this as an idea, but I'm going to have to look at it rather more closely before I decide to expend time on it... In general, I believe the best way of handling pure HTML is to improve the quality of the presentation in that format, and make it completely seamless - that's why we're concentrating so hard on improving the way we present HTML data.

Aside from the preceding technical comments about HTML mail, another reason I wanted to send this message was to show that your comments on this list *do* make it back to me, and I *do* listen... I find it endlessly frustrating that I simply don't have enough hours in the day to participate as actively in this list as I would like, but some of my most capable and experienced beta testers are regular participants and they pass on a great deal of what gets discussed here.

And since I just *know* that this message is likely to provoke a flurry of queries about a release date if I don't say something, all I can tell you is that I'm working as hard as I can, but I don't have a formal release schedule yet. There will be a public beta period prior to the formal release, and with some luck and a lot of work, that will be early next month - watch this list for details. 

Cheers!
 
-- David --


------------------ David Harris -+- Pegasus Mail ----------------------
  Box 5451, Dunedin, New Zealand | e-mail: David.Harris@pmail.gen.nz
           Phone: +64 3 453-6880 | Fax: +64 3 453-6612

Sign seen in an Austrian Skiing Hostel:
   "Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose
    in the boots of ascension."