Masataka Ohta <mohta(_at_)necom830(_dot_)cc(_dot_)titech(_dot_)ac(_dot_)jp>
writes:
ISO-2022-JP as is without any encoding is ACTUALLY WORKING NOW completely
well for unstructured message headers. So is ISO-2022-INT-*.
It's "actually working now" in Japan only. In Europe, iso-8859-1 is
"working completely well" in message headers. In Russia, koi8-r is
"working completely well" in message headers.
Each of these approaches only works within its particular enclave.
None of these work outside their enclave, in a global Internet.
These various enclaves are going to be no less resistant to switching
to anything else (Such as ISO 2022) as they are to switching to
1522. It is, however, necessary for them to switch to something in
order to interoperate in a global context.
The only thing I can think of to ease the pain of 1522 is to add an
"8" encoding. This would, however, add compatability problems with
existing MIME implementations.
Conversion between those encoding systems and ISO-2022-JP is done
widely on all Internet-connected computers. Conversion to local
encoding is necessary anyway.
Then what's the big deal with about decoding MIME 1522-words? Why do
you instead expect every one else on the planet to switch to using
ISO-2022 when they really couldn't care less about it?
Thus, using ISO-2022-INT-* does not add anything about the complexity
of local decoding.
As I've mentioned in private communication, ISO-2022-INT-* is a very
complex thing to parse. The published formal grammar for it isn't
even context free.
--
_.John G. Myers Internet: jgm+(_at_)CMU(_dot_)EDU
LoseNet: ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up