RE: MIME as a vCalendar element separator - bad move...

["Roland H. Alden" <ralden@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>How many people are intending to build calendaring products that will
>not be capable of sending meeting requests to others via e-mail?

A device that can send and receive email needs:

	1. some communication channel, modem, wireless thing, etc.
	2. a keyboard or other message composition tool
	3. a screen big enough to make email semi useful

Today all that pretty much makes the device NOT fit in your pocket.

A device that can only receive appointments and vCards and can only
send the owner's vCard over an IR link (e.g. a US Robotics Pilot
with an IR port) could:

	1. Hold a copy of your Rolodex
	2. Hold a copy of  your schedule
	3. Gather vCards electronically 
	   when you meet people with like devices
	4. Do the same for simple appointments
	
If you ask me would such a device be cooler if it sent
and received email I'd have to say yes; so yes, someday
all such devices will be MIME capable. Can I have one
today that really fits in my pocket? No. Would the
manufacturers of such devices be happier if they
could base some of their work on an interchange standard?
Yes, of course.

One problem with email is feature creep. I can imagine a
MIME compatible email tool that does fit in my pocket
coming on the market real soon. However, I can also imagine
lots of people rejecting it because they have grown so
used to email messages with attached files, graphics and
fonts, inboxes with 100's of messages, that they can't
picture a diminuitive tool being that useful. I CAN picture
myself in an airport phone booth with a device full of
vCards and my schedule and say to myself "that would be
useful". I cannot say the same for a device that, for example,
can RECEIVE, but not SEND email. That can receive a drastic
subset of my email (messages < 2K or some such metric),
etc. That's why laminating this particular spec with one
solely dedicated to relatively high-end email will create
problems. I'll be the first to admit that perhaps one more
turn of the crank on technology and these problems will
disappear; and for a "internet" standard they are nearly
irrelevant. The problem is that this application space
lives at the border of the Internet and a whole class
of semi-connected devices that are not necessarily 
full blown computers.

And finally, to answer your question, no I do not intend
to build one.