Going GUI...er

[Sam Kuper]

On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 09:23:34PM -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 05, 2020 at 12:09:55AM +0100, Sam Kuper wrote:
>> I'll assume you mean that the email has multiple parts or
>> attachments, one (or more) of which is an HTML file and one (or more)
>> of which is an image file, and that the HTML file has an "img"
>> element with a "src" attribute whose value is the name of the image
>> file (at some path).
>> 
>> (That is an inconsiderate way to send "email", but some people do
>> it.)
> 
> Sorry, but this is an archaic way of looking at the problem.  People
> have been doing this for decades now, has become the norm, common
> practice, and really it is therefore WE who are being inconsiderate by
> not accepting de facto standards that have been widely adopted for a
> very long time.

I disagree.  You have made a "roads were built for cars" argument*: it
assumes that today's "de facto standard" trumps historical precedent and
considerate behaviour.

I've nothing against people sending emails with multiple attachments.
But expecting the recipient's MUA to parse multiple attachments into
some kind of combined document is presumptuous, because clearly not
everyone's MUA does this.

And even if yours does: should it?  As several people in this thread
have pointed out (and as is also illustrated in the "Efail" paper by
Poddebniak et al, linked in my footer), using such an MUA massively
increases your attack surface.

Making an MUA that works the way you are calling for and that is also
secure might be possible, but I don't know of anyone who has achieved it
yet.  In the meantime, don't rue the functionality you feel you are
missing.  Please be thankful for the security and control that you have,
and help others to achieve and be thankful for the same.


* Historically, roads were *not* built for cars.  See:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/23/roads-were-not-built-for-cars-carlton-reid-review

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/16/roads-not-built-for-cars-book


-- 
A: When it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: When is top-posting a bad thing?

()  ASCII ribbon campaign. Please avoid HTML emails & proprietary
/\  file formats. (Why? See e.g. https://v.gd/jrmGbS ). Thank you.