"Mark" == Mark Crispin <mrc(_at_)CAC(_dot_)Washington(_dot_)EDU> writes:
Mark> This business about spaces not being optional after the colon
Mark> is silly, as are similar such "differences". Yes, almost all
Mark> messages have LWSP after the colon. But a programming mistake,
Mark> particularly in some version of rn or equivalent dinoware, is
Mark> even less of a justification for a separate message format than
Mark> a length limit.
the requirement for spaces (not just LWSP, but an actual SP character)
after colons is from 1036 (and was in 850 before that), so it's been
part of the news standards for as long as they have existed.
Following that requirement is not a "programming mistake".
--
Andrew.