function isEmailWellFormed(email) {

	if (!email)	return false;

	if (window.RegExp) {

		email = email.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');

		// regular expression statements here
		if (!(/^\w+([\.-]?\w+)*@\w+([\.-]?\w+)*(\.\w{2,3}|\.\w{4}|\.\w{5})+$/.test(email))) {
			return false;
		}
		return true;
	}
	else {

		while (email.substring(0,1) == ' ') {
			email = email.substring(1,email.length);
		}

		while (email.substring(email.length-1,email.length) == ' ') {
			email = email.substring(0,email.length-1);
		}

		// a workaround without regular expressions here
		var at="@";
		var dot=".";
		var lat=email.indexOf(at);
		var lstr=email.length;
		var ldot=email.indexOf(dot);

		if (email.indexOf(at)==-1)
			return false;

		if (email.indexOf(at)==-1 ||
			email.indexOf(at)==0 ||
			email.indexOf(at)==lstr)
			return false;

		if (email.indexOf(dot)==-1 ||
			email.indexOf(dot)==0 ||
			email.indexOf(dot)==lstr)
			return false;

		if (email.indexOf(at,(lat+1))!=-1)
			return false;

		if (email.substring(lat-1,lat)==dot ||
			email.substring(lat+1,lat+2)==dot)
			return false;

		if (email.indexOf(dot,(lat+2))==-1)
			return false;

		if (email.indexOf(" ")!=-1)
			return false;

		return true;
	}
}