From: Erland Sommarskog (sommar-usefor@algonet.se)
Date: Sat Aug 03 2002 - 14:53:10 CDT
"Bernie Cosell" <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> writes:
> Actually, the difficulties in using Agent to moderate with encapsulated
> sumbissions are VERY deep; I'm not convinced it will be possible at all.
With the current version, maybe. But it was only just a few weeks ago
that I looked at Forté's web site, and the product seems very much to
be evolving.
> If news breaks with 2822 compatibility, I'm not sure what "two-in-one"
> clients like Agent will do, *at*all*, much less whether those apps will
> continue to be useable for moderation, since they'll have to have a LOT
> of their internals changed [for example, if I have a folder and I file
> both email and usenet message in the folder, the app will have to be
> careful to keep track of which is which; not difficult but just a layer
> of detail not currently needed]. This is not to say that any of this
> isn't doable, it will just mean, IMO, a fair bit of work for the folks
> trying to support the 2-in-1 apps (not even worrying about moderation
> issues now). Indeed, I wonder whether some of the big-gorillas in the
> jungle [like MS/OE and to some extent Forte/Agent] will take kindly to
> news and email no longer using the same underlying format and be willing
> to DO the internal mickeymousing it'll take to do it 'right'...
I don't know the internals of Agent, but I would surprised if this
would be rocket science. As Russ noted Mail introduced a new concept
that was is not sent over the wire, is not what is intended to be
displayed. Now that was a major step, and indeed it broke a lot of
software, for instance the mailer I am using (mailx). But still you
say people tout their solution as "compatible with existing software".
In any case, conceptually news and mail have never been the same, and
then I am not talking about formats, but how they are used. When Pine
arrived on the scene, many were the Pine users that were flamed
because they responded to a personal reply in public, because Pine
lured them to believe it was a newsgroup reply because of the Newsgroup
header. (Or if Pine lured itself.)
Thus, Agent must be able to tell what is what already, to avoid their
users making fools of themselves.
-- Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, sommar@algonet.se