Nathaniel,
'partial' seems quite different from 'external' since partial really does
refer to a message, albeit one that has been chopped apart, whereas
external refers to an object of unknown, and varied, type.
As to the issue of -encoding the information, I've assumed that that
mechanism would be entirely independent of the -content information, since
the spec carefully separates them, so that I'm still not understanding
how my proposal creates added complexity.
Not trying to be difficult, here, but am obviously ending up quite dense.
In any event, my intent was to offer something that I thought was significantly
cleaner. I haven't seen feedback that basically shares that view, so unless
some voices speak up, I'll consider the suggestion dead (sob), since I am quite
clear that it should NOT be treated as a showstopper.
Dave