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Bill Eykyn wrote:
> > I have been unable to open and view the gif files that Bill
> > Eykyn has been sending to the list. Others tell me the same.
> I have sent another .gif file to David Cicia to see what happens.
> What I cannot understand is why some of them come out without any
> trouble and others do not.
> I am not a computer expert, so will someone tell me what ought to be done.
Oh boy, I get to play computer geek today. :-)
The problem is that there are several ways to attach binary files
(such as GIF images) to an email message, but not all are supported
by all mail readers.
Bill, you have been using a format called "UUencode." This is a
format that originated on UNIX ("UU" == "Unix-to-Unix"), and is not
universally supported on PC's and other systems. The problem is,
inserting binary data directly into a mail message can seriously
confuse various mail-handlers along the way. UUencode turns binary
into "safe" ASCII characters that can be safely transmitted in a
normal text email message. That's the gibberish that David's been
seeing. Some mailers (such as some browsers and Pegasus Mail)
recognize and decode it OK, although it often requries different
steps than "normal" attachments. Other mailers, apparently including
Eudora Lite, do not support it, and you see the encoded-binary
gibberish.
The more standard approach is to use "MIME attachments." MIME (which
stands for Multimedia somethingorother) is a real live standard that
should be supported by all modern mailers. Bill, I don't know what
mailer you're using, but somewhere there's sure to be a configuration
option that lets you use MIME attachments instead of what you're
using now. That should solve the problems for everyone.
Gary
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