fontaine(_at_)sri(_dot_)ucl(_dot_)ac(_dot_)be (Alain Fontaine (Post master,
UCL)) writes:
Why object ? Is not the MD5 computed on the BODY of the entity ?
No, the "body" is the result of applying the content transfer encoding
to the "object". The MD5 is computed *before* the content transfer
encoding is applied.
Another way to say it would be "the body prior to the application of the
content transfer encoding". But regardless of what term you happen to pick
to describe the material inside, its crucial that we emphasize the order
in which the operations are performed.
Its unfortunate that content-md5 has to be separate from the primary MIME
documents -- it would be both simplest and best to tie it into the canonical
encoding model at the proper place.
Ned