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Questions about 1522 encoding scheme

1995-01-24 05:26:31
Today I got a question about 1522 encodings which I was
unable to answer, so I hope some of you can help me.

1522 states in section 5 that:

       Ordinary ASCII text and encoded-words may appear together in the
       same header field.  However, an encoded-word that appears in a
       header field defined as "*text" MUST be separated from any
       adjacent encoded-word or "text" by linear-white-space.

and

       A "Q"-encoded encoded-word which appears in a comment MUST NOT
       contain the characters "(", ")" or " encoded-word that appears in
       a "comment" MUST be separated from any adjacent encoded-word or
       "ctext" by linear-white-space.

and in section 6.2

   When displaying a particular header field that contains multiple
   encoded-words, any linear-white-space that separates a pair of
   adjacent encoded-words is ignored.  (This is to allow the use of
   multiple encoded-words to represent long strings of unencoded text,
   without having to separate encoded-words where spaces occur in the
   unencoded text.)

So, as far as I can see the line

      =?US-ASCII?Q?Keith_?=    =?US-ASCII?Q?Moore?=

Should be presented as

      Keith Moore

...because the space between the encoded words should be deleted
when displaying the text. So, the space that must be there
must be in one of the encoded words.

But, what happens when you mix encoded words with text?
For example:

      =?US-ASCII?Q?Keith_?=   Moore

You must have space between the encoded word and the text, so
I presume that the spaces after the encoded word should be
deleted.

So, I would like the above string to be displayed as:

      Keith Moore

But, the RFC sais as you can see that "linear whitespace", not
_one_ space character, is to be deleted so the encoded word:

      =?US-ASCII?Q?Keith?=         Moore

should be displayed as

      KeithMoore

(note that the '_' is missing from this encoded word)


So, now my question/statement which I must have confirmed:

   Any whitespace in a text that is to be encoded, or adjacing
   to text that is to be encoded, must also be encoded?

        Patrik



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