ietf-822
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Re: The transition to UTF-8 header fields

1999-02-12 00:32:37
Keith has mentioned two more strategies:

   (3) Display an 8-bit header field as UTF-8 _if_ it is a valid UTF-8
       string.

   (4) Display all the 8-bit header fields in a message as UTF-8 _if_
       all the fields are valid UTF-8 strings _and_ the message contains
       the following special header field: ...

Both of these are mis-interpretations.  more precise descriptions:

3) if a phrase, comment, or *text field containing 8bit characters is 
   a valid UTF-8 string in its entirety, display it as UTF-8.  
   otherwise display it in a local character set.

4) if a message does not contain a special header field, display all
   8bit characters in a local character set.  if the message does
   contain the special header field, follow rule 3.

note that #4 is just for comparison; I don't consider the extra
header field useful enough to be worth the trouble.

you have to make the display-as-UTF-8 vs. display-as-local decision 
with smaller granularity than a header field, because each 
phrase/address/comment in an address field may come from a different 
source, using a different character set.

Keith