In <200204301731(_dot_)g3UHVHe18588(_at_)astro(_dot_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu>
Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
yes, but the cost of persuading the whole email community to implement
a change to UTF-8 in any timeframe significantly shorter than 20 years
is so large that it seems totally infeasible.
Yes, but the purpose of this present discussion is to investigate whether
a change to UTF-8 is feasible without undue pain at the present time. So
asserting that it is is impossible with 20 years and than using that
assertion to prove that it is impossible is just a circular argument.
The real question is whether the change could be introduced in such a way
that that the whole email community would not be required to change
overnight. So one needs to consider:
1. Whether facilities for downgrading need to be specified, and if so how,
and where they should be applied. The availability of RFC 2047 and RFC
2231 are a good start for that purpose, if needed, but other possibilities
would likely have to be looked at.
2. The syntactic contexts in which UTF-8 characters would be allowed. One
should start with the presently defined syntax (which allows them nowhere)
and define the relaxations on a case by case basis.
It is likely that the cases where RFC 2047 is allowed would all be safe.
Also quoted-strings in the value parts of parameters (as envisaged in RFC
2231). Also most other quoted-strings (but not all of them). Things that
remained in strict ASCII would likely include msg-ids, tokens and header
names (indeed, anything used as a keyword).
who is going to pay for such a change? who is going to want to deal
with the disruption that it would cause?
Nobody, because nobody (except you apparently) imagines that it would be
done in a manner which caused such widespread disruption.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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