Richard Coleman <coleman(_at_)math(_dot_)gatech(_dot_)edu> writes:
But the real question is what flexibility do people really need?
Just the abilities to say "always use 8bit"? Or the ability to
give a default encoding for every content type? Or both (which
is complicated).
I think the answer is both, but the current code is pretty much set
up to do that already, or so it seems from a user's perspective.
The MH philosophy is to put stuff in your .mh_profile that you
usually want to do, but be able to override it through command-line
arguments. Embedded arguments to mhn should be similar. And, since
you have mhn-store-content-type in the .mh_profile, one should also
be able to do the same in mhn input files.
Indeed, the European user may have the hypothetical entry in his
.mh_profile:
mhn-read-text/plain: charset=iso-8859-1 {8bit}
so that normally he can simply his mhn input files with:
#text/plain file
since he knows that his colleagues can handle the 8bit characters
and the character set. But if he sends me a message, he may assume
(incorrectly) that I have an old 7-bit MTA and override that entry
with
#text/plain file {qp}
So my vote would be to able to set the encoding in .mh_profile, on
the command line, and in the mhn command.
Bill Wohler <wohler(_at_)newt(_dot_)com>
Say it with MIME. Maintainer of comp.mail.mh and news.software.nn FAQs.
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.