HTML not so evil (was Re: Eudora Replacement)

[Derek Martin]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 04:10:56PM +0000, John Chambers wrote:
> Derek Martin writes:
> |
> | I think it would take the average web administrator 10 minutes to set
> | up a location on the web server to dump the documents into, password
> | protect it, and teach the secretary how to access it.  Setting up a
> | more robust, general-purpose solution can, I think, be done in under a
> | day.  There are probably even existing solutions that can be set up
> | quickly and easily...
> 
> Maybe, but the best case I've  ever  seen  so  far  is  still  rather
> daunting for the average non-computer-geek type. 

First off, I've worked with many non-coputer-geek types who could
manage basic file manipulation in Windows, and more, who would
probably be offended by that kind of comment.  This isn't difficult to
teach.  But even if you're working with complete imbeciles, a workable
solution should be not too difficult...

> First, the poor user has to successfully get the file over to the
> server,  something  that is  often  baffling  and  requires asking
> an expert to do it for you.

This can be automated with some kind of script.  If you have any
Visual Basic whizes in house, you can even have it give the user the
usual file selection dialogue box...  Presumably your user can manage
that, or else they're probably just too stupid to be using a computer.
The script does the rest, and sits on the user's desktop with a nice,
happy icon.

> Then how do you get the correct URL  into  the  email  message?

The script spits it out.  The user copies it and pastes it into her
e-mail.

> The chances  of  your  typical secretary getting this right the
> first (or Nth) time is close to zero.

If it's automated, there's nearly nothing to screw up, and it's not
much more difficult than dragging and dropping an attachment.

> The  web  approach would be very nice if we could make it work with a
> couple-second operation.  I've never seen this anywhere yet.

Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't possible... ;-)

Please note carefully: I am not now suggesting nor have I ever
suggested that people should stop using e-mail attachments.  On the
other hand, I do think that many, many attachments which have been
sent were a monumental waste of bandwidth and storage space...  What I
will suggest is that it would be nice if people were more prudent
about sending attachments, and use alternatives when it makes sense to
do so.

Now I think we really have spent too much time on this, so I'm going
to duck for cover and avoid the rest of this thread.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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