Subject: Re: A basic FAQ about pc mail & unix picture viewers

From: [email-masked] (Barry Bouwsma)
Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 11:52:21 -0400

In a previous article, [email-masked] (Lawrence Butler) says:

>I have a basic question. To use PC-Pine is it a requirement that your
>computer be part of a LAN, or have a POP, Slipp account? Or can you
>uses it with a plain old dialup user account

    PC-Pine requires another machine to hold received mail, and a
machine to serve for sending mail along.  To talk to these machines,
PC-Pine uses IMAP or SMTP.  Therefore, PC-Pine must have either a
network connection directly, or speak over a SLIP or PPP link.
PC-Pine does not use POP, nor will it work over a regular dial-up
account that works for terminal emulators, unless this account also
can provide SLIP or PPP service.  There are several versions of
PC-Pine to allow you to use different packet drivers or different
networks.

>Second faq: To really be able to use MIME at its fullest you need to be
>on an X terminal correct? IOW, to view pictures that are mailed to you
>you would need 1. X-terminal 2.viewing software  

    An X terminal can make display of simultaneous windows more
convenient.  But you could also use PC-Pine, save a received image
as a file, and run a viewer on that file outside of Pine.  MIME
also permits mailing of sounds and formatted documents, and the only
thing you really need is the ability to display these; that is, you
need programs to view them, whether for X or a PC or whatever.

>Third faq: To save or download a MIME attactment do you just press e to
>export the file and then uudecode the file?

    MIME attachments are not UUENCODEd.  They use BASE64 encoding,
which is different from UUENCODE.  Pine has decoding built in.  When
you receive an attachment with MIME, Pine will list the attachments
and prompt you to <V>iew attachments, whereupon you will then be
given the option of <S>aving the attachment to a file, or if it can
be displayed (a text file, or if your display is capable of showing
images), you can <V>iew it.  Pine splits off the attachments and
saves them separately in files for you, and no further action is
needed on your part, other than to provide the name of the file in
which the attachment is to be saved.  Pine decodes the file, saving
a GIF image as a GIF binary file, for example.

--
  Barry Bouwsma, back in Michigan, wishes he were in Europe
 MIME mail to  <[email-masked]> , ASCII text to  <[email-masked]>
Unemployed System Cracker and Unix Administrator, seeking work, food,
    warmth, companionship, free airline tickets, and lots of money