R help - Feb 2017 - R scripts attached to e-mails - correct MIME type ?!

>>>>> Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
>>>>>     on Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:47:02 +0000 writes:
    > Helo, No attachment came through. Change the file
    > extension from .R to .txt and resend, there aren't many
    > types of files r-help accepts.

    > Rui Barradas


As a matter of fact, one would have to blame the e-mail program
you use.  The file extension is *not* equivalent to the file
type, and the mailing list software accepts the (MIME) type  text/plain
and a couple of others.

The problem with most modern e-mail clients/programs/apps/... is that
they use something you could translate as  "unknown binary format" 
as type for their attachments if they can't guess the correct
file type from the file extension.
It would be interesting to know (for me) if there are modern
e-mail programs / web apps which you could *teach* about the
mime type, e.g., for all files ending with extension '.R'...

Martin Maechler
ETH Zurich, Seminar fuer Statistik,
== the provider of all the (standard) R mailing lists.


    > Em 17-02-2017 17:20, Allan Tanaka escreveu:
    >> ....
    >> ....  See attached for R script

Hello,

I use Mozilla Thunderbird and I don't see a way of teaching it about the 
mime type.
My understanding is that files with the .R extension are eliminated by 
the r-help mail server, but .txt pass. Is this correct?

Rui Barradas

Em 20-02-2017 14:15, Martin Maechler escreveu:
>>>>>> Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
>>>>>>      on Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:47:02 +0000 writes:
>
>      > Helo, No attachment came through. Change the file
>      > extension from .R to .txt and resend, there aren't many
>      > types of files r-help accepts.
>
>      > Rui Barradas
>
>
> As a matter of fact, one would have to blame the e-mail program
> you use.  The file extension is *not* equivalent to the file
> type, and the mailing list software accepts the (MIME) type  text/plain
> and a couple of others.
>
> The problem with most modern e-mail clients/programs/apps/... is that
> they use something you could translate as  "unknown binary
format"
> as type for their attachments if they can't guess the correct
> file type from the file extension.
> It would be interesting to know (for me) if there are modern
> e-mail programs / web apps which you could *teach* about the
> mime type, e.g., for all files ending with extension '.R'...
>
> Martin Maechler
> ETH Zurich, Seminar fuer Statistik,
> == the provider of all the (standard) R mailing lists.
>
>
>      > Em 17-02-2017 17:20, Allan Tanaka escreveu:
>      >> ....
>      >> ....  See attached for R script
>

Not by the mail server as such, no, at least not for that reason. However,
T-bird likely sends .txt as text/plain and .R as application/octet-stream (or
so) and _therefore_ the server eliminates the latter and lets the former pass.

-pd
> On 20 Feb 2017, at 15:45 , Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I use Mozilla Thunderbird and I don't see a way of teaching it about
the mime type.
> My understanding is that files with the .R extension are eliminated by the
r-help mail server, but .txt pass. Is this correct?
> 
> Rui Barradas
> 
> Em 20-02-2017 14:15, Martin Maechler escreveu:
>>>>>>> Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
>>>>>>>     on Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:47:02 +0000 writes:
>> 
>>     > Helo, No attachment came through. Change the file
>>     > extension from .R to .txt and resend, there aren't many
>>     > types of files r-help accepts.
>> 
>>     > Rui Barradas
>> 
>> 
>> As a matter of fact, one would have to blame the e-mail program
>> you use.  The file extension is *not* equivalent to the file
>> type, and the mailing list software accepts the (MIME) type  text/plain
>> and a couple of others.
>> 
>> The problem with most modern e-mail clients/programs/apps/... is that
>> they use something you could translate as  "unknown binary
format"
>> as type for their attachments if they can't guess the correct
>> file type from the file extension.
>> It would be interesting to know (for me) if there are modern
>> e-mail programs / web apps which you could *teach* about the
>> mime type, e.g., for all files ending with extension '.R'...
>> 
>> Martin Maechler
>> ETH Zurich, Seminar fuer Statistik,
>> == the provider of all the (standard) R mailing lists.
>> 
>> 
>>     > Em 17-02-2017 17:20, Allan Tanaka escreveu:
>>     >> ....
>>     >> ....  See attached for R script
>> 
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Office: A 4.23
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com

On Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:15:27 +0100 Martin Maechler <maechler at
stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>>>>>> Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
>>>>>>     on Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:47:02 +0000 writes:
>
>     > Helo, No attachment came through. Change the file
>     > extension from .R to .txt and resend, there aren't many
>     > types of files r-help accepts.
>
>     > Rui Barradas
>
>
> As a matter of fact, one would have to blame the e-mail program
> you use.  The file extension is *not* equivalent to the file
> type, and the mailing list software accepts the (MIME) type  text/plain
> and a couple of others.
>
> The problem with most modern e-mail clients/programs/apps/... is that
> they use something you could translate as  "unknown binary
format"
> as type for their attachments if they can't guess the correct
> file type from the file extension.
> It would be interesting to know (for me) if there are modern
> e-mail programs / web apps which you could *teach* about the
> mime type, e.g., for all files ending with extension '.R'...
Well, there's Gnus in Emacs:

(add-to-list 'mailcap-mime-extensions '(".R" .
"text/x-rsrc"))

But I guess you know that ;-)

Steve Berman

On 23/02/2017 4:47 PM, Stephen Berman wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:15:27 +0100 Martin Maechler <maechler at
stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>
>>>>>>> Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>
>>>>>>>     on Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:47:02 +0000 writes:
>>
>>     > Helo, No attachment came through. Change the file
>>     > extension from .R to .txt and resend, there aren't many
>>     > types of files r-help accepts.
>>
>>     > Rui Barradas
>>
>>
>> As a matter of fact, one would have to blame the e-mail program
>> you use.  The file extension is *not* equivalent to the file
>> type, and the mailing list software accepts the (MIME) type  text/plain
>> and a couple of others.
>>
>> The problem with most modern e-mail clients/programs/apps/... is that
>> they use something you could translate as  "unknown binary
format"
>> as type for their attachments if they can't guess the correct
>> file type from the file extension.
>> It would be interesting to know (for me) if there are modern
>> e-mail programs / web apps which you could *teach* about the
>> mime type, e.g., for all files ending with extension '.R'...
>
> Well, there's Gnus in Emacs:
>
> (add-to-list 'mailcap-mime-extensions '(".R" .
"text/x-rsrc"))
>
> But I guess you know that ;-)
>
He said "modern".  ;-)

Duncan Murdoch