From: Henry Spencer (henry@spsystems.net)
Date: Wed Jul 07 2004 - 14:22:58 CDT
On Sun, 4 Jul 2004, Bruce Lilly wrote:
> > So what trouble, exactly, is caused by having news assign syntax and
> > semantics where 2822 just sees an unstructured blob?
>
> A user agent then cannot determine whether to apply the RFC 2822/MIME
> syntax and semantics or the _other_ syntax and semantics.
A user agent which is in doubt about the nature of a particular message
can apply the least restrictive of a compatible set of definitions, which
in this case would be the RFC 2822 one: "unstructured, except might use
Re: prefix to mark replies". The user should be able to tell it to do
otherwise, of course.
> > It's also
> > exactly what many mail-based applications, e.g. mailing-list packages, do.
>
> No problem e.g. with the List- fields defined in RFC 2369; same rationale.
I should have been more precise about this... The applications I'm
thinking of assign their own syntax and semantics to the Subject header in
some situations, using it for commands to the software. They would appear
to work fine, and are in active use today, and I've never heard of anyone
accusing them of violating standards.
Henry Spencer
henry@spsystems.net