Excerpts from internet.ietf-822: 23-Oct-91 another bad idea of mine Mark
Crispin(_at_)panda(_dot_)com (520)
Now that we have the character sets as parameters (and thus are available to
any other type that may need it), we no longer have subtypes for TEXT.
Well, I don't know that we "have" this -- I didn't think that an
agreement between Messrs. Crispin & Rose automatically constituted a
consensus. But I am, in fact, willing to live with this solution if it
does represent a consensus. (I am *Not* willing to live with a
mandatory separate content-charset header.)
I propose that the default subtype for TEXT be PLAIN. All other subtypes will
be the subtypes of TEXT-PLUS, and the TEXT-PLUS type abolished. Syntactical
sugar, yes, but it's one less type to worry about and it consolidates things
in a nicer way. There are too many cases where I have to check for TEXT or
TEXT-PLUS which would be simplified by a single TEXT check.
Assuming that this compromise is accepted, I can endorse this as well. -- NB