Is there anyone out there who wants to argue for
retaining verbatim? -- Nathaniel
I can see it being crucial to a smooth transition.
Most mail agents dont support mime at this time, abstracting
verbatim elements will be distracting to readers using non-mime
agents.
A prime forum for such readers is the mailing list
(such as ietf-822) or the newsgroup. News sites are
likely to upgrade software when it becomes available,
that leverage will hasten the adoption of MIME when it
hits news, but mail is a different story, personal mail
can be made to suit the recipient, a maillist is a bit
harder, I doubt that the listserv'ers of the world will
become intelligent enough to allow clients to spec MIME-NOT
switches, so the composer of a message which is to be
broadcast has to consider the broader audience.
Sporadic raw rich/enriched text has a place on this
forum, we all have a copy of the spec (in theory); but
I wouldnt want to see it on "lute", or "Think-C".
We need to consider the transition (a little)
as well as the final product.
--
dana s emery <de19(_at_)umail(_dot_)umd(_dot_)edu>