Four related new drafts have been submitted discussing an extensible
Internet Message Format to address a number of existing issues:
o clutter in the header of the current (2822) format as received,
which has led to implementations suppressing important content
as well as clutter
o ability to protect (sign and/or encrypt) the end-to-end content
including the originator-supplied header fields
o extensibility for further internationalization of content and/or
for experimentation with new message formats
o ability to reliably detect multiple list expansions, including
the order of list expansions
o avoiding a problem with current message/partial fragmentation
and reassembly whereby the originator's Date field is altered
and/or the partial message header Date fields do not accurately
convey the RFC 2822-specified semantics
all while maintaining backward compatibility and reliability.
The drafts are draft-lilly-extensible-internet-message-format-p01-00
and -p02-00, -p03-00, and -p04-00.
It is expected that there may be additional related parts (repositories
for UAs, MSAs, filters, message stores, etc. to record non-originator
content).
-p02 is intended for Standards Track, which is not clearly indicated
due to a typo; the others indicate their respective intended status
in the page one heading per ID-Checklist suggestions.
-p01 and -p04 contain MIME media type registration templates and
-p03 contains some registration guidelines for related media type
registrations. -p01 is an introduction.
All four drafts are in a very early stage of development, rushed
somewhat to meet the pre-IETF publication deadline.
General discussion should probably take place on the ietf-822
list (where replies are suggested by the Reply-To field of this
message), whereas media registration specific discussions should
probably take place on the ietf-types list. The author of the drafts
reads both lists, so cross-posting to both lists should be reserved
for issues likely to be of interest to both lists.
The author is expected to be incommunicado from tomorrow through
July 19, so don't expect immediate responses.