At 5:45 PM 9/9/94, "Erik E. Fair" (Internet Architect) wrote:
protocol. The whole idea behind MIME was to get the user interface
software changed to properly support character sets other than ASCII
*independent* of transport and it does no damn good if we don't label
the silly things
Fair enough.
which is where the "just send 8 bits" idiocy leaves
us. This goes for NetNews too.
Not fair enough. The "idiocy" is for Internet software to reserve a bit
for parity.
In the case of SMTP, the idiocy has been perpetrated for so long that there
is very little hope of eradicating it from the email infrastructure in our
lifetimes. And so it makes perfect sense to only use 7 bits unless
specifically told you can do otherwise.
The claim of the 8-bit NNTP proponents is that the NNTP infrastructure is
already 8-bit clean, and so there's no need to be so pessimistic in our
assumptions. We can assume 8-bit clean, unless told otherwise. NNTP has
in fact reached the nirvana that SMTP can only dream about (they claim).
If in fact the NNTP infrastructure is 8-bit clean (I am not qualified to
comment on that), then doesn't it make good sense to declare the protocol
8-bit clean, too, and avoid universally hated stuff like quoted-printable?
--
Steve Dorner, Qualcomm Incorporated
Whosoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a
debt of gratitude we owe to Adam. He brought death into this world.
Mark Twain