ietf-822
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Re: Transmission issues for transition to UTF-8 Headers

1999-02-12 11:02:08
On Feb 12,  7:27pm, Dave Crocker wrote:
} Subject: Transmission issues for transition to UTF-8 Headers
}
} For moving to UTF-8 headers, we need an esmtp option and, I suppose, an 
} 822(bis) header.

I think I agree with Keith that a new header field doesn't really help.
I'm not a UTF-8 expert by any means, but it sounds like recognizing the
strings individually is sufficient.  We've got these cases:

1.  Plain unlabeled (non-UTF-8) octets.
2.  A UTF-8 string, which can be recognized by its structure.
3.  An RFC2047 string, which can be recognized and the character set
    extracted.
4.  An RFC2231 string, which can be recognized and the character set
    and language extracted.

Due to vagaries of old software, one might end up with several of those in
the same header field; I think only 2047 and 2231 end up being mutually
exclusive (?).

What information is the new header field going to carry to help an MTA or
an MUA deal with this situation?  Who's responsible for canonicalizing a
mess like that so that a single header field could describe it?

-- 
Bart Schaefer                                                   Zanshin
http://www.well.com/user/barts                   http://www.zanshin.com