Neeum Zawan wrote:
>     As for Gmail, I should have said "mail clients". Obviously, it 
> doesn't matter too much what format online mail services use if they 
> don't give you access to the actual files.

And outlook is primarily an online mail service.

>     Never used Lotus Notes. You're saying its format is nonstandard 
> (and/or nonopen) even now?

It was last I looked, and for much the same reason that Outlook's is.

>     I've used some software on VAX. It was a simple text file - probably 
> mbox format.

There are three standard formats. One message per file, or a file with 
^A^A^A^A\n before and after each message, or with "From " at the start of 
the line marking a new message.

>     Well, if they really need a feature that an open/standard format 
> can't handle, I can see the point. However, what's the excuse for not 
> providing a straightforward way to export to an open/standard format? 

They did. It comes with Outlook. That's why you have to have outlook 
installed to use it. Microsoft is going to have a hard time providing you 
with a way to export proprietary formats to something more generic if you 
don't install the software they give you to do it.

It's the same way you programatically export excel spreadsheets, word 
documents, and email messages.  It's called COM.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "We'd like you to back-port all the changes in 2.0
    back to version 1.0."
   "We've done that already. We call it 2.0."

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