Re: The MIME version number

[Ned Freed <Ned.Freed@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I can understand this... _however_ if the version number is now a useless thing
> lets get rid of it.  It's just using up a little bit of space but in how may
> mail messages?

There's a *big* difference between something that cannot be changed
and something that is useless. Many programs use MIME-Version to tell
whether or not a message is in MIME format. In effect it has become
a binary value.

And even if we could agree that this sort of check is itself useless and
hence best not done, we could do nothing to change the installed base that
does this check.

In short, MIME-Version is here to stay at 1.0.

> Just leaving it at 1.0 seems silly...

I agree it looks that way. But lots of engineering choices seem silly in the
abstract but are neverthless quite justifiable in practice.

				Ned