In <01MKEZIWES14005BGY(_at_)mauve(_dot_)mrochek(_dot_)com>
ned+ietf-822(_at_)mrochek(_dot_)com writes:
Again, this line of challenge to the current spec seems to be attempting a
review of previously-resolved issues, rather than claiming that there are
known problems with the resolution and documenting the need for change.
This is exactly such an example. Implementors seems to have taken that
SHOULD as an excuse to "improve" messages during transit (not allowed if
you read the spec correctly) or to avoid enabling display of these things
robustly when they do arrive (also not allowed by the spec).
And I'll once again point out that these implementors have quite simply read
something into the specification that just isn't there. You cannot
cure such misreadings by removing compliance language - if you do that
they will simply say "there's nothing in the specification that says I cannot
or should not do this".
If this really is worth addressing (and I'm 99.99% convinced it is not), the
way to do it is to tighten down the rules, not loosen them. For example, you
could say something like "the 78 character limit SHOULD be observed when
initially constructing messages but exceeding 78 characters SHOULD NOT be taken
as justification for modifying messages in transit".
Yes, that would address my problem. In fact, it was one of the
possibilities I suggested, but Pete was unconvinced :-(.
Generally speaking, there should be a SHOULD NOT for changing _anything_
during transit, except for Trace headers, changes of CTE (if you are
unfortunate enough to encounter a non-8BITMIME system), or other such
things explicitly allowed. Far better to let the end points deal with
odd things that intermediate hops find odd.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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