[imp] The PIMP

[Brian Dragoo]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Max Kalika wrote:

> Quoting Chuck Hagenbuch <chuck@horde.org>:
> 
> > If someone wants to put in the time to make lynx work nicely, I'll support
> > you, but ... I don't use lynx much. So I don't need it - I have much bigger
> > itches to scratch.
> 
> And if someone on a system with access to lynx, it is a good bet that pine is 
> accessible as well.


This is an excellent point; quite worth reiterating whenever this
discussion comes up.  I'm all for being aware of simplicity and
compatiblity (even with lynx) when designing websites, but that cannot be
a simple dogmatic mantra.  There is no point in having web-based e-mail
accessible to a text-only browser for exactly the reason that Mr. Kalika
pointed out above, namely that mutt, pine, elm, and (hell) even mail are
likely to be available to anyone that might be browsing text-only.  If
anyone can think of a real reason to remain lynx-compatible in IMP, I'd be
happy to change my position on this.

My general point is this: in the often dogmatic GNU/*NIX/OSS community,
it's important to consider individual cases (like this) carefully, and
make sure that our dogmas *really* apply.  Here, I think it (the dogma of
hyper-compatibility with everything right down to lynx) loses its
applicability.

Brian Dragoo
TAC