Good e-Mail etiquette

I spend a fair amount of my day communicating with you via e-mail.

My preferred e-mail address is: macnosy At_Sign jasik.com (At_Sign -> @ )

Note that when I send you patch files, etc via Internet, that many of them will be in BinHex format (have a .hqx suffix).
This is necessary as Internet uses 7-bit ASCII.
You will need a utility such as Stuffitª to translate the files.

Here are some simple rules for good e-mail communication:

1) Use a decent e-mail package like Eudora if using Internet.

2) Identify yourself via 'signature lines' at the bottom of your message:

name
e-mail address
organization
area code & phone number
street address
city, state ...

3) When reporting problems, include basic configuration info about your system:
Version of The Debugger you are using (by date please)
What Macintosh (Quadra 800, ...), how much RAM,
what version of the Mac OS, etc.
Basic facts that help me figure out what the problem might be.

4) When discussing problems, put distinct problems or questions out on different lines or in separate paragraphs.
Electronic paper is cheap, so use some of it.

That way the respondent (me) doesn't have to rearrange your letter when responding to the different questions in it.

5) Maintain context - I communicate with many people during the course of a day/week/month and it is presumptuous of you or me to think that I or you remember the details of our previous e-mail conversation.

6) The better you identify and articulate a problem in a letter, the better I am able to answer it.

7) Sending me output, test cases, etc (Passing files around): If the output is short, then just include it in the text of the message. Note that Internet uses 7-bit ASCII as a standard and will garble the special characters but oh what the hell.

If it is a long file or there are more than one, etc THEN put them in a folder.
Remember to include a read me note as a TEXT file.
Use some standard compression utility such as Stuffit 3.x by Alladin, Compactor Pro or Vise to compress the files.

If you use some other utility, or are not sure, then create a '.sea' file. The AppleLink compression format is useless.

If you are sending me a file from Internet, then you will then have to BinHex the result which creates a '.hqx' file.

This is because Internet is a bit on the old side, and is only knows about 7 bit ASCII.

The Head Nose