ietf-822
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Making group syntax do-not-generate

2005-01-14 02:40:57

Bart Schaefer writes:
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:47:24 -0500, Keith Moore 
<moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> wrote:
furthermore, you don't seem willing to accept or act on negative results, as evidenced by your continued insistence on using LIST: despite having been informed that it confuses one widely used mail user agent.

It confuses Gmail, too. Gmail displays the recipients (and addresses the replies) as LIST, ietf-822

I suppose as a well-behaved beta-tester I should report that as a bug.

Perhaps. But group syntax has been so little used in the past years that IMO it's better to kill the syntax than to try to support it. As a feature, group syntax simply isn't carrying its load.

IMO, the best option would be to issue a short RFC saying:

1. Mail senders SHOULD NOT generate group syntax.
2. Mail receivers are urged to test that they can parse empty groups, since several current senders generate that, e.g. "To: unknown-recipients:;" and "To: ietf-announce:;".

Comments?

Arnt