XML will be a godsend to lists like this for not only can different stylesheets be used, but sensible printing and archiving are also possible at a level far beyond what we are use to.
What keeps us trapped is number of inter-related problems. The MIME standard was developed for a range of primitive digital devices and worked well enough for them, but its problems are now obvious as they are frustrating. HTML only adds to the problems, virtually taking all the worst aspects and adding colour, fonts and graphics.
To make a funedemental break requires having software that is multi-platform, that is flexible enough to force list contributors to follow specific rules without forcing them to think about it. XML offers this in the form of DTD Document Type Descriptions, for instance you may have a number of these based on whether a contributor is sending a reply, an article from a foriegn source, a news item etc (ideas can be added to that, creating a new thread, subthread etc need not rely on naming conventions and could have any number of extras thought useful, summaries, titles etc).
Of course, the problem remains that despite the dominance of MS, the computer world is very fragmented and so software developed on one platform does not exist on another. In this XML browsers will be available on nearly all platforms, and soon some decent XML editors, but relying on some technical detail or another in order to really get emails working will not be possible - unless this is coupled with another technical leap.
The authors of MIME rather than being shot should be congratulated for at least getting things to work at all in the first place. The problems they face have many times been compounded and the expectations of users very much increased (hence an abortion like HTML mail is foisted upon us).
JAVA promised a way out, but it is demanding and bulky and I believe doomed to be a rather secondary device. The alternative that my money is on, is the TAOS Amiga approach were a virtual CPU is used to translate code to a particular environment while the whole thing is wrapped up in its own operating system hosted on Linux, Windows, QNX and Macs etc.
Given this alternative, it is not beyond having software provided by a list and running in the hosted environment and we thereby get the emergance of defacto standards which in the long run will lead to real standards. The key is to have a realiable single point of origin (like MIME which was 7 bit transmissions) but in this case a combination of editors, browsers and mailers which work together on a system that can placed on any existing system.
Hopefully in the new year there will be a bit more about this approach out in public, it is far superior to JAVA (it also includes a very fast JAVA engine), but it will be another year at least bnefore all the elements are available and that is if all goes well.
Do not underestimate the problems of making an improvement on this old technology. They are not the same problems that MIME authors were faced with, they are not even resolvable by standards as the complex needs defy such abstractions (in fact they require compatible standards in a number of different fields in order to even explore the possiblities). The good news is that the language of communication XML is there, the means of bringing software to bear on the problem is emerging (TAOS and AMIGA) sometime after that some sort of resolution is achievable.
Forgive the techno-babble, but the problem is an enigma until a suitable language of communications is linked to the problem of finding a material means for its long term solution. XML is the language part, there is no doubt on this, but the industry is floundering on the means to provide a practical way forward.
Greg Schofield Perth Australia
--- Message Received --- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 15:55:31 -0500 Subject: MIME 1.0
Question for all you geeks out there - why isn't there a version of MIME beyond 1.0?
Doug