Re: [WinMac] Cross-platform email

Liam Helmer(liamh[at]axion.net)
Thu, 17 Dec 98 16:34:48 -0800

>I run a small business selling and supporting bibliographic software
>which is available for both Mac and Win platforms. The support part
>(free!) involves users sending me corrupt files etc from time to time,
>and email has become the standard transmission medium.
>
>My problem is this - I can send/receive email from either platform, using
>Claris Emailer on the Mac and Eudora on the PC. However if I receive
>attachments from a PC user on my Mac, the attachments are often
>MIME-encoded, and Claris Emailer won't have a bar of them. If I send a
>file from the Mac to a Windows user, by default Claris Emailer insists on
>BinHexing them, unless I tell it to uuencode or Base64 encode - any of
>these can give problems at the other end. I downloaded a freeware package
>called MPack 1.5 which is supposed to be able to decode MIMEd files, but
>for some reason it won't! (Yep, I'm probably doing something wrong, I
>know).
>
>If I run email from the PC, I get the converse problems. I have about
>10,000 users out there, at present roughly half and half although Windows
>is definitely in the ascendancy (as a Macman vintage 1984, or earlier if
>you count the Lisa, I hate to admit that, but facts are facts).

Actually, mime encoding is the same as Base64 encoding, so that's kind of
odd. Anyways, you can set the encoding preference for Claris Emailer in
the Accounts settings, so you can always use Base64 or whatever you like
as default. However, I've been noticing lately that Claris Emailer's
encoding of Base64 files is rather inconsistent (I've had problems
sending Mac programs via email using Base64 encoding, they come out with
the resource forks garbled at the other end, even if it's being received
by Claris Emailer on the same machine!).

On Eudora, I know there's a setting for choosing what encoding method to
use, the default method is in the options, and you can also do it message
by message using the little tab for it on the top of the message.
Depending on what version you have, you'll have different capabilities in
that arena...

The truth is that the decoding of email-encoded files depends more on the
email program than the platform... just make sure that both email
programs can use the same encoding method, and you should be fine.

Cheers,
Liam

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sun Dec 20 1998 - 15:59:32 PST