Subj : future for fido
To   : Tim Schattkowsky
From : Martin Foster
Date : Sat Apr 09 2022 10:55 am

Hello Tim!

*** Friday 08.04.22 at 15:59, Tim Schattkowsky wrote to August Abolins:

 SR>>>> Hi All I would have thought that this would have been a busy echo. If
 SR>>>> there are any sysops intrested in discussing the future lets start an
 SR>>>> echo !

 TS>>> I think the Echo is related to an old project.
 AA>> I haven't posted this description in a while..

 TS> I think I mixed some things up :) Memory is getting worse of the years.

Yep, I know the feeling only too well :-/

 TS> Of course I support the idea of this echo and would love to see even more
 TS> discussion going on.

Perhaps folks might like to comment on your suggestion which you posted  
recently in FTSC_PUBLIC .....

*** Thursday 10.02.22 at 14:42, Tim Schattkowsky wrote to All:

 TS> Hello All,

 TS> when using Fido today I regularly hit the wall when I notice that I would
 TS> like to *attach at least a picture* to illustrate something. Also, people
 TS> keep sendig me fido messages that refer to pictures put on their web
 TS> space. This feels odd.

 TS> Also, the current practice for *text styles is limited* in application
 TS> and not well-defined. Still, this seems to be the minor of the two
 TS> issues.

 TS> I think this is really something that could/should be addressed in some
 TS> way to enable relevant contemporary communication through fido.

 TS> To adress this, I see _at least_ two options:

 TS> 1) Do it fully email-style by using MIME with HTML text and
 TS> embedded/referenced    pictures. This will be a lot to implement and
 TS> particularly difficult to    handle in 16-Bit software due to memory
 TS> restrictions and lack of frameworks.    Also, memory comes to mind when
 TS> considering the size of the resulting    messages. Using @SPLIT, these
 TS> could be extended beyound 63k, but the    resulting messages might be
 TS> considered an annoyance. 2) Define a simple fidonet-compatible way that
 TS> is more in line with existing    fido technology (particularly a maximum
 TS> message length of 63k) but still    enables including at least a picture
 TS> and maybe simple text styles while    maintaining readability on
 TS> non-compatible systems.

 TS> I find both alternatives interesting, but currently I prefer the latter
 TS> with a focus on embedding the picture. The idea would by to have
 TS> something that is more like the ability to post a picture on social media
 TS> platforms. So instead of providing half a text processor for creating
 TS> formatted text, people can just include the picture with their fidonet
 TS> mail and ideally the editor will recompress the picture as needed to a
 TS> jpg to limit the resuling message size including the encoding picture to
 TS> 63k.

 TS> My idea for the latter would be to include the .jpg as Base64 and add a
 TS> kludge to it for inline-display. This could also be done for multiple
 TS> images.

 TS> An alternative would be including a link to the picture like we do today,
 TS> but enabling the reader to automatically download such pictures and maybe
 TS> include automated upload/linking of the image in the editor. However,
 TS> that would be quite dependent on other services.

 TS> *What do you think?*

 TS> Regards,
 TS> Tim
 TS> -+- WinPoint 398.3
 TS>  + Origin: Original WinPoint Origin! (2:240/1120.29)

What do *I* think? .....

I absolutely love the idea of being able to use a Fido message reader  
capable of displaying *inline* images in Fido messages.

Go for it! :-))

Regards,
Martin

--- OpenXP 5.0.51
 * Origin: Bitz-Box - Bradford - UK (2:310/31.3)

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