Comments on: Love and hate in Macland http://mactheweb.com/opinion/love-and-hate-in-macland/ Mac and the Web - Perfect Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:31:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: michael http://mactheweb.com/opinion/love-and-hate-in-macland/comment-page-1/#comment-8463 michael Tue, 20 Jun 2006 02:25:41 +0000 http://mactheweb.com/opinion/love-and-hate-in-macland/#comment-8463 I seriously doubt that it is the mbox format that made mail slow. I get my mail on both Thunderbird on Windows and Mail on the Mac. Despite my Gateway being generally slower than my iBook, Thunderbird has never slowed down, even with close to 5000 mails. For most of its life Mail has been pretty flaky for me. I don't buy the rationalization. Besides, the point is not about Mail. It's about having portable data. If only Mail will read Mail's archives, then my information is not totally mine, but only available if I can read it in Mail on a current version of Mac OS X. There are Applescripts to convert Mail archives and weirdkid software makes a conversion program. But some of the formatting is altered in in the conversion. So only an approximation of my email is available. It's not just Mail. I no longer save anything in .doc or .awk format but rtf. I'd use HTML if the automatic conversion didn't create such a mess. Unless I need the included calculations, I save spreadsheets as csv files. I convert my camera raw files to tiff for archiving. After too many instances of having to translate files, inevitably losing some formatting in the process, I'm more and more leary of closed formats that will need to be translated the next time some CEO decides that he needs to force upgrade sales by changing a file format. I seriously doubt that it is the mbox format that made mail slow. I get my mail on both Thunderbird on Windows and Mail on the Mac. Despite my Gateway being generally slower than my iBook, Thunderbird has never slowed down, even with close to 5000 mails. For most of its life Mail has been pretty flaky for me. I don’t buy the rationalization.

Besides, the point is not about Mail. It’s about having portable data. If only Mail will read Mail’s archives, then my information is not totally mine, but only available if I can read it in Mail on a current version of Mac OS X.

There are Applescripts to convert Mail archives and weirdkid software makes a conversion program. But some of the formatting is altered in in the conversion. So only an approximation of my email is available.

It’s not just Mail. I no longer save anything in .doc or .awk format but rtf. I’d use HTML if the automatic conversion didn’t create such a mess. Unless I need the included calculations, I save spreadsheets as csv files. I convert my camera raw files to tiff for archiving.

After too many instances of having to translate files, inevitably losing some formatting in the process, I’m more and more leary of closed formats that will need to be translated the next time some CEO decides that he needs to force upgrade sales by changing a file format.

]]> By: Peter http://mactheweb.com/opinion/love-and-hate-in-macland/comment-page-1/#comment-8407 Peter Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:16:29 +0000 http://mactheweb.com/opinion/love-and-hate-in-macland/#comment-8407 I'm not an expert on these things, but what do you do when the "standards" can't handle things you want to do efficiently? This isn't a great example, and I'm sure I'm wrong, but suppose the standard mail format starts to slow down dramatically after, say, 2000 messages? Should Apple just throw up it's hands and say, "Sorry folks, nothing we can do. Use multiple mailboxes." Or should they change their file format to efficiently deal with >2000 message mailboxes? Also, if the argument is that you can't transfer messages out of Mail, why not write an AppleScript to do it? I’m not an expert on these things, but what do you do when the “standards” can’t handle things you want to do efficiently?

This isn’t a great example, and I’m sure I’m wrong, but suppose the standard mail format starts to slow down dramatically after, say, 2000 messages? Should Apple just throw up it’s hands and say, “Sorry folks, nothing we can do. Use multiple mailboxes.” Or should they change their file format to efficiently deal with >2000 message mailboxes?

Also, if the argument is that you can’t transfer messages out of Mail, why not write an AppleScript to do it?

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