ietf-822
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Re: EBCDIC & uuencode/uudecode

1991-05-10 03:50:17
To me, our objective is to make our mail systems reach out as far as
possible without making trouble for anyone.  This means that we must
not take a provincial postion with regard to "INTERNET USASCII IS ALL
WE CARE ABOUT, AND TO HELL WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD!"

It seems clear to me, and I suggest that we conclude that we have
consensus on this, that we need to use a base64 encoding that will
pass without any translation ambiguity trouble through as many limited
and troublesome character encodings as possible.

The list of "charcter set environments" what we want to pass unscathed
includes (USACII, other non-USASCII 7bit codes, EBCDIC, 8859/n, and
Printable String).  Are there any others?  Lets agree on this list!

Question-1 -- Are there 64 safely invarioant characters in this
collection of envirnonments that we can use for the base64 encoding?

Question-2 -- Are theses the same characters chosen by PEM-DEV for
their specified version of Base64?  If not, what is different?

Now, I believe that there is no way for us to either deny the
recognition of what PEM-DEv does for its Base64, or do our base64
differently!  We must agree with PEM-DEV.

If PEM-DEV base64 is not designed to pass through the mess that we can
identify as the relevant mess to pass through, then we should discuss
this with PEM-DEV, and strive for the maximum passability.

Is that any reason to deisagree with this position?  Best...\Stef

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