From: Bill Davidsen (davidsen@prodigy.com)
Date: Thu Aug 01 2002 - 11:38:20 CDT
On Mon, 29 Jul 2002, Bernie Cosell wrote:
> This still all feels wrong to me --- I can't *believe* that usenet is
> going to need better-than-ASCII newsgroup names *BEFORE* email needs
> better-than-ASCII. Zillions more people, world-wide, use email than use
> usenet, and the character-set-lack will surely show up sooner and with a
> LOT more force in the email realm, no?
I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. The character set lack
will never show up because they have the defined the world to be 7-bit
ASCII. Case-free ASCII at that.
> Also, I guess there's a more subtle problem lurking -- when the 'local
> part' of an email address can be 8-bit, then the impact isn't only in RFC
> (2)822-land but also in SMTP-land, since that info will have to be
> passable in the MAIL FROM and RCPT TO commands and handled properly by
> the SMTP server...
> Right. But surely SOMEONE involved with the email world has noticed that
> 7-bit-ascii-only is a problem?? Why not let THEM solve it, and then just
> use the same mechanism for news [just as with 1036/822]? Can it really
> be 'right' to have usenet and email come up with *different* [presumably
> mutually incompatible] ways to solve the same problem?
- it's not a different solution to the same problem, it's a different
problem. Mail doesn't have, and probably can't and shouldn't try to add,
case sensitivity at this late date, 8-bit implies case sensitivity (for any
remotely sensible implementation) and would break tons of things. Newsgroup
names are full ASCII now and going to 8-bit. Our choices are to provide a
standard way for that to happen or to wait for the next yEnc to come and make
our lives miserable.
- We are solving our problem, mail doesn't have the same problem. And more to
the point, a solution for mail might be worse than the cure.
- go see "Waiting for Godot" and enjoy the play and the moral. You can spend
your life waiting for the wrong thing.
We can't follow mail, it's not going anywhere, or at least not where we want
to go. We can either outlaw 8-bit or support it. Mail can then follow our
lead, reinvent the wheel, or continue to operate in seven bits.
-- -bill davidsen (davidsen@prodigy.com) "The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the last possible moment - but no longer" -me