🚀 go-pugleaf

Jonathan,

I have to agree with your general sense that exchange standards
for mm objects will have to convey more contextual information
than one typically finds in a particular application file format.

There is something interesting, though, about what we can see
happening out there in application land. People who write similar
applications (e.g. drawing packages) seem to be going to the
trouble to support import (and sometimes export) in a variety
of "formats." I don't think what has been done thus far will
generalize in any particularly nice way because, as you point
out, these formats were designed for particular applications
which bring a lot of context to the file which doesn't have
to be explicitly mentioned in the file itself. 

I expect, though, that there will be a strong inclination to
be able to move objects with application-specific content
around in the mm mail. The best example of the "lack of context"
problem is sending ASCII files around with embedded tab
characters but no indication anywhere as to the correct tab
settings. ASCII is a wonderfully low level "medium" but even
ASCII can foul you up, as above. And we all know some of the
problems with shipping PostScript around...

I think we will need to accommodate transfer of things like
TIF, CGM, and other common application formats around, while
searching for much more general, architecturally sound 
frameworks for exchange of complex objects.

Vint
[A