ATM Mail formats, attach a file: NO!

[seront@seism1.ess.sunysb.edu (Bernard Seront)]

>
>If there is interest, I will attach the file next time I log on.  I in 
>particular wanted Mel Bartels to look at this, since I used his programs 
>to determine the specifications.  I understand Mel is now in charge of 
>this list
>

May I suggest you NEVER attach a file of any kind, any length to a mail sent
via a listserv.

Some people can't just decode attachments, and have hundreds lines of
garbage coming on their screen.
You never know how it is encoded (mime, binhex, uuencode, ...).
I would never download and save one of these attachments , for virus
problems. No I am not affraid about virus, but a minimum of precautions is
needed. And I know you need to run an exe to infect your computer, so a file
cannot do that (but actually this is not even true: there is a virus in Word
format, you just open the file under word and the macro embeded in this
virus-word-document starts automatically!).

It you want to share some files with the list (wich is a great idea), the
best way is to put them on a ftp server and let it know. 

Bernard.