At 00:03 1/14/00 , Alistair Bell wrote:
>at home, using my old computer, an '89 SE/30, OS 7.5,   (dedicated mail
>reader), stucco's winmail.dat atttachments hangs my  Eudora 3.1.

Interesting -- so it's the MAC version of Eudora that chokes on
Winmail.dat.  I just checked their website and found no mentions of
problems with receiving attachments...

>Why do people configure their mail clients to send such unwanted dross?

As a rule, they don't.  I believe that Outlook Express (the mailer that
comes with Win9x) is shipped configured to send messages as HTML or
otherwise fancied up.  For that matter, Eudora glosses the matter over by
glibly talking about "styled" text and not explaining the various
tradeoffs.  But Winmail.dat is unique to -- and useful only to -- uSoft
clients talking to each other.  For all the rest of us, it's just a pain.

david

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"