On Saturday 15 May 2004 23:14, Stephen Crawshaw wrote:
> And many "preview" panels only show the top part of an e-mail. If
> top-posted one can read and deal with such more rapidly.
But both of these ideas suggest several things:-
That the whole content of the correspondence to date will be in each sucessive
email
That there will be neither need nor benefit to replying point by point instead
writing a whole "letter".
That the replies will not include some small correction, as of a single word -
likely corrected to possible for instance.
That the correspondence is between only two people, or is constrained so that
each participant takes turn in posting - otherwise there are _different_
sequences flying about... removing every claimed virtue quite thoroughly.
(and that the email clients in use are brain dead and don't thread, whic is
the main reason for it.)
Stephen's point is particularly perverse, in that if you are not going to
_read_ the tail of correspondence, is it actually beneficial to have it
lugged around, rather than being present in a threaded sequence of emails,
each of which will have its main content visible in the preview panel as you
pass over it.
Would anyone want a conferencing system (which the NHS users of the poorly
threading top-quoting MS clients are tending to offer as an alternative
(perhaps more since it allows the whole correspondence to be removed more
handily than if it has been copied hither and thither, and thus gives the
appearance of control) that quoted the whole of each thread into each leaf of
the tree? Although I see unthreaded conferencing systems have now been
invented - who'd a thought it.
--
Adrian Midgley (Linux desktop)
GP, Exeter
http://www.defoam.net/
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