Re: MIME as a vCalendar element separator - bad move...

["Mark Horton" <mark@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Stepping out the virtual world for a moment, but remaining hypothetical, if
> my mom sends me a care package at school, it might contain a box of homemade
> cookies, a couple jars of peanut butter, a Monopoly game, a picture of my
> nephew, and a letter.  The packaging might include a box, an envelope or
> two, tin foil for the cookies, jars for the peanut butter, and some old
> newspapers to keep everything from sloshing around in the box.  In a virtual
> world, MIME is not just the box.  It's the jars, the envelopes, the tin foil
> and the stuffing as well.
>
> This is where I think there is some confusion. My mom had to put the
> Monopoly game in the care package.  She didn't have to open up the game and
> insert a bunch of separators to keep the $50 bills separate from the Chance
> cards.  That was Parker Brothers' job.

Exactly!  Skip, you've hit the nail on the head (and made my day, as well,
you have a way with words.)

There is no reason for Parker Brothers to stuff newspaper inside their box
when they have determined that cardboard compartments work better for their
application.

In the case of MIME, it's a good mail encapsulation format and an excellent
attachment format.  But it's overkill for calendar events where a simple
BEGIN will do.  If we use MIME we run the risk of confusing mail programs
that might think they have to understand the internals of the calendar
application format.  This makes about as much sense as requiring Word 8
to use MIME to separate the various parts of the document.

	Mark