When you compose and post a news message, you may use HTML as a way to improve the presentation. This means you can include some JavaScript to be executed in the client mail-reader application.

Not all news reading clients can support HTML let alone JavaScript. However, if your recipient does (and that is likely if it's a web browser), then you can do some creative things to link topics in threads and pre-format replies so that they associate correctly into the news topic tree. You simply construct your HTML document in the normal way.

Warnings:

• There are significant security and virus-related risks with JavaScript enabled news. The possibilities are so catastrophic that the best reccomendation is to deactivate JavaScript and Java in any news-reading client application.

• Just because something is possible does not mean it is advisable or good to do.

• On the other hand, within the confines of a closely controlled intranet or workgroup, this could find many useful applications. Just so long as you know where the news posts came from and you can absolutely trust that they have not been compromised.

• Personally, I'd recommend that you turn it off. It might be useful for including the odd diagram but mostly you need to get the informational content and it doesn't really need to be very pretty.

Cross-references:

Wrox Instant JavaScript - page - 60