The statement was that there should be a requirement that readers must
recognize the 7bit, 8bit, and binary content-transfer-encodings. This
means that they must perform the relevant (trivial) decoding
step--they are prohibited from treating such
content-transfer-encodings as "unrecognized".
It does not mean they are required to be able to handle 8bit data or
binary data--that is something else entirely.
--
_.John G. Myers Internet: jgm+(_at_)CMU(_dot_)EDU
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