From: Charles Lindsey (chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 07:02:07 CST
In <5.1.0.14.2.20011231215003.00a77800@joy.songbird.com> Graham Klyne <Graham.Klyne@MIMEsweeper.com> writes:
>At 08:02 PM 12/31/01 +0000, Charles Lindsey wrote:
>>I think that is exactly right. For each header, the registry says
>>something about each protocol for which it is to be considered
>>appropriate. But then it has to refer to some defining RFC (or
>>whatever). However, I think you actually need both a "primary"
>>definition and a "secondary" definition in some cases.
>Hmmm... I don't see it in terms of "primary" and "secondary".
>Rather, for any header that is registered as a "standard" header, the
>specification must indicate the protocol(s) for which it is considered a
>standard. For any combination of header-name and protocol, there can be at
>most one registration. It may be that the defining document is different
>for a given header in different protocols...
>>For example, copnsider the From header, as used in news.
>>
>>The primary definition is RFC 2822. But you need USEFOR as a secondary
>>definition, since it makes some slight syntactic changes (the "obsolete"
>>syntax from RFC 2822 is no longer REQUIRED, but there is extra provision
>>for some parts of it - comments and phrases, but not addresses - to use
>>characters from UTF-8, and there are also some additional exhortations
>>about munging addresses). The same applies to MIME, where USEFOR
>>adopts it en bloc, but then goes on to mention a few extra details and
>>conventions. So a persopn who consults the registry needs to be directed
>>to both sources if he wants the full story.
>... in this case, I would say that the specification for From: in email is
>per RFC 2822, but for use in news, RFC 2822 as modified by USEFOR must be
>considered. This approach seems more clear-cut to me.
OK, you are basically saying the same thing as I am, except that you
reverse the meanings of "primary" and "secondary".
So in the From header example, it would say that, for NetNews, the
"primary" definition is [USEFOR]. But then it would also be useful to add
that [RFC 2822] is the "secondary" definition (since 90% of what you need
to know about From headers is contained in RFC 2822). (In the case of the
MIME headers it would be more like 98%.)
I would be quite happy to do it that way round.
>> > PS: I'm not subscribed to the USEFOR list, so can you please cc me on any
>> > direct responses. Thanks.
Done.
-- Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------ Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl Email: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K. PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5