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So You’d Like to Send Some Email (Through Code)

blog.codinghorror.com · 1,406 words · saved by 1 readers

I have what I would charitably describe as a hate-hate relationship with email. I desperately try to avoid sending email, not just for myself, but also in the code I write. Despite my misgivings, email is the cockroach of communication mediums: you just can’t kill it. Email is the one method of online contact that almost everyone – at least for that subset of “everyone” which includes people who can bear to touch a computer at all – is guaranteed to have, and use. Yes, you can make a fairly compelling case that email is for old stupid people, but let’s table that discussion for now. So, reluctantly, we come to the issue of sending email through code. It’s easy! Let’s send some email through oh, I don’t know, let’s say... Ruby, courtesy of some sample code I found while browsing the Ruby tag on Stack Overflow. There’s a bug in this code, though. Do you see it? Just because you send an email doesn’t mean it will arrive. Not by a long shot. Bear in mind this is email we’re talking about.

I have what I would charitably describe as a hate-hate relationship with email. I desperately try to avoid sending email, not just for myself, but also in the code I write. Despite my misgivings, email is the cockroach of communication mediums: you just can’t kill it . Email is the one method of online contact that almost everyone – at least for that subset of “everyone” which includes people who can bear to touch a computer at all – is guaranteed to have, and use. Yes, you can make a fairly compelling case that email is for old stupid people , but let’s table that discussion for now. So, relu

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