Subject: Re: your mail

From: Joe Brennan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 0:01:33 EST

> 	There is another message in its place, however.  That message is
> something everyone should know.  *Never* type in a long (or even short)
> important email over a dialup connection. 

...USING PINE'S COMPOSER, that is.

A more fully featured editor like Emacs would be saving to disk as you
go along, and thus at worst you would lose the last few lines.

Pine's composer could have been designed to do this, but was not,
reflecting its writers' belief that it is for short email messages
only, although Pine's users may not realize this.  By now, I think
we'd have to call this a bug.

> You should always compose important messages offline and upload them

Argh!  Saving to ascii and uploading and inserting/attaching is a
miserable experience.  If people have to compose offline they might as
well use PC mail software.

Joseph Brennan  Postmaster  Academic Information Systems
                Columbia University in the City of New York
                [email-masked]

---

From: Robin S Socha <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 08:14:45 +0200 (CEST)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

On Setting Orange, the 17th day of Discord in the YOLD 3163,
Joe Brennan whined:

  >....USING PINE'S COMPOSER, that is. A more fully featured editor like
  >Emacs would be saving to disk as you go along, and thus at worst you
  >would lose the last few lines.

In most cases, emacs takes longer to start up than I need to type the
message. Besides, it has its own mailers, which are better than pine but far
too heavy for most people. And where do you think a dead.letter comes from?

  >reflecting its writers' belief that it is for short email messages only,
  >although Pine's users may not realize this. By now, I think we'd have to
  >call this a bug.

"We" = you, one should think. Reading the FAQ will tell you that you can
invoke another editor implicitly and if you like, you can invoke emacs.

  >> You should always compose important messages offline and upload them
                               ^^^^^^^^^
  >well use PC mail software.

Notice the restriction? Not always, but only for important messages.

Well, whatever...

- -----
Robin S. Socha,
Political Science Dept., Bonn University, Bonn
Key fingerprint = 7F F2 84 73 CF E9 2C 92  F6 6E F9 B4 8F FE AC 1E
To get my pgp public key, send an e-mail with the subject "get pgp-key"

GMC d++ s+:+ a- C++ UL++$>+++$ P+>++$ E>+ W- N+ o@ w--- M-- PS--- PE+++ Y+
PGP++>+++ t+() 5-- tv++(+) b+++ DI++ D+(++) G++>+++ e++>+++ h r++>+++ y+**

---

From: Edward M Greshko <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 22:25:33 +0800 (GMT)

> we'd have to call this a bug.

	Well, 99 out of 100 times you will be able to continue composing
email with pine after a communications interrupt.  (Happens in India "all" 
of the time...  :-) :-) )  Not all people care to learn Emacs or other
"full featured" editors since the term "full featured" often implies "more
complex".
 
> well use PC mail software.

	I suspect you are assuming someone is using a Word Processor of
the MS-Word varity such that they would have to choose "save to ascii".
I dare say many folks still use "notepad".  And, as noted, I only
suggest doing this for important emails...so I doubt it will burden 
the average person all that much.

	As for using PC mail SW....yes that is an option.  Of course the
SW has to support disconnected mode. 

	Regards,

		Ed

-- 
Edward M. Greshko                  Technical Manager, Electronic Commerce
                                   Control Data Asia/Pacific Region
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