Dave Crocker writes :
Erland> Dave Crocker <dcrocker(_at_)brandenburg(_dot_)com> writes:
If this is is an example of the way discussions have gone on usefor, then
it's pretty clear why the technical work is in trouble.
The current usefor text is very technically sound .
You might not like the direction where it goes, but there has been a lot
of serious work on every aspect.
2. compatibility with netascii is an explicit goal when working with email.
The current USEFOR draft does a lot to insure that.
I'm certain it's possible to find a solution to the very last remaining
problem.
3. the logic behind that goal is applicable to any other application having
a similar installed base history.
The big difference is that Usenet transport has almost since the very
start been fully 8 bit.
4. paying attention to the installed base requires worrying about
compatibility with what has been established practise, not what "might" work
or what is "frequently" available.
We have a problem here with the definition of what constitutes
established practise.
In my opinion, in every respect 8 bits in headers is established
practise in usenet.
7. breaking standards is not measured by whether someone's code core-dumps.
it is measured by whether it violates the specification. sending 8-bit data
in a 7-bit environment breaks the specification. sending valid strings of 7-bit
data that might need further interpretation (to obtain the semantics) does
not.
Usenet is a 8 bit environnement.
Also, this discussion remembers me that there's a difference in the
philosophy of usenet and email that explains why the japan related ML
that I participate in stay in netascii, while the
fr.lettre.langue.japonaise newsgroup switched to using UTF8, both choice
being coherent in their own context.
A person who receives a usenet message is never the destinary of that
message, and it is his job to make that it takes to receive them.
There's never a guarantee you'll receive a message, it just happens
sometimes that a specific message does not arrive, on very loaded binary
groups it's even very frequent.
If that happens and you're not happy, you have alternatives and can try
to get it from another source.
In the case of the current recommendation of Usefor, people could get it
through Google Group, it already works today :
http://groups.google.fr/groups?oe=UTF-8&selm=3C430CFC.1080804%40club-internet.fr