If you get digests on America Online -- as 20 of our TCC readers do -- you've noticed that AOL is now putting the first 25KB into an email 'preview" and then offering the entire message as a downloadable MIME-encoded file attachment, formatted with MS-DOS CRLFs. (Use DOSWasher, NetStripper, Add/Strip, or word processor commands to take out the linefeeds.) Or sometimes AOL has delivered Unix-style text files, which are unreadable on most word processors. Programmer's editors such as BBEdit Lite and Alpha may then be the best choice; try downloading or <.../alpha-60.hqx>. This was all intended to be an improvement over splitting the text into multiple email messages. [Geoff Duncan , TidBITS, 8/28/95.]

To read a digest without downloading the first 25KB, choose "read message" and immediately stop the display (via keystrokes, such as command-period on the Mac). Then choose "download file" and use a MIME reader or a file translator such as info-mac/text/net-stripper-11.hqx. [Carolyn M. Barry , Mac*Chat, 1/9/95.]

If you're ready for BBEdit from BareBones Software, you'll find a sophisticated programmer's word processor that you can live in. The commercial version is well-integrated with ToolServer, MetroWerks, and Symantec development environments and supports Claris XTND for importing/exporting files, drag and drop of blocks of text and files, and PowerTalk Mail. HTML code writing is also supported. Download bbedit-lite-30.hqx or bbedit-35-demo.hqx from info-mac/text/bbe on any of the info-mac mirrors. [Geoffrey Clements , Mac*Chat, 1/9/95.]