From: Clive D.W. Feather (clive@demon.net)
Date: Mon Jul 08 2002 - 03:01:13 CDT
John Stanley said:
>> New version:
>> .... All other headers defined in this standard (excluding
>> variant headers, but including specifically the Message-ID-header)
>> MUST be identical in both the posted and mailed versions of the
>> article, except that headers rendered in UTF-8 in the posted version
>> MAY be encoded according to [RFC 2047] in the emailed version.
>
> No. Message ID, and by extension all headers that contain msg-id content,
> MUST NOT be different. There is ONE message id for a message, not two, not
> five.
>
> There is absolutely no reason for encoding a message id.
If I am correctly reading the syntax, a message id is limited to US-ASCII
characters. Therefore encoding is never necessary.
However, the above wording does produce problems, because UTF-8 is a
superset of US-ASCII. It needs to say something like:
... except that headers containg a UTF-xtra-char in the posted version
MAY be encoded ...
> In addition, to say that they MUST be identical except they may be
> different is just loony. It's as if one is trying to redefine the
> RFC-standardized meaning of MUST.
No, "MUST be X, except case Y MAY be Z" is just another way of saying
"MUST be X or Z, and if not case Y then MUST be X".
-- Clive D.W. Feather | Work: <clive@demon.net> | Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 Internet Expert | Home: <clive@davros.org> | Fax: +44 870 051 9937 Demon Internet | WWW: http://www.davros.org | Mobile: +44 7973 377646 Thus plc | | NOTE: fax number change