hansen(_at_)pegasus(_dot_)att(_dot_)com writes:
If you receive a mail message that contains a Content-Type: header, and you
want to treat it as a MIME message, the ONLY way to start is to look for the
Mime-Version: header.
That is hardly the case.
RFC 1049 Content-Type values do not match the syntax of MIME
Content-Type values. If you treat non-MIME-parseable content-types as
"text/plain; charset=us-ascii", or if you treat them per RFC 1049 et
al., your mail reader will not break.
If your mail reader doesn't check for at least the presence of the
Mime-Version: header, then you can expect it to break once in a while when
one of these messags crosses your system.
None of my MIME parsers look at MIME-Version. They don't break on
such messages--such messages get handled as "text/plain; charset=us-ascii".
--
_.John G. Myers Internet: jgm+(_at_)CMU(_dot_)EDU
LoseNet: ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up