Date: Fri, 05 May 1995 13:58:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ned Freed <NED(_at_)SIGURD(_dot_)INNOSOFT(_dot_)COM>
You also seem to assume that putting things into the main message
headers hides them somehow.
Actually, I'm not assuming that at all. My point is that the data
which is being arbitrarily forced into the body is data which actually
describes the true body, that is, it is data which belongs in the
header along with all of the other similar data. Encapsulation should
actually accomplish something. Otherwise, we should do away with
headers altogether and put *everything* in the encapsulation.
> In any case, this point suggests some circular reasoning. If the mail
> systems to which you refer followed community standards, the problem
> that you're suggesting wouldn't exist. That they're not suggests that
> the standards shouldn't be overly influenced by them.
On the contrary, the point reflects substantial real-world
experience and is not circular at all. Removal of unrecognized
header lines, especially nonstandard X- headers, is actually quite
common. It has taken a lot of widespread community effort to get
MIME's own headers into the "standard" set for most of these
systems.
It still seems that you are arguing that standards should be dictating
by the systems which actively reject standards. IMO the message to
such systems should be, as Jamie Zawinski is fond of saying, `evolve
or die'.
The position which you are espousing seems more like `Standards should
bend over backwards to support systems which actively reject
standards'. If such systems choose anti-social behavior -- which of
course they are free to do -- they will be unable to interact with
society as well as others.
I don't think that its at all unreasonable to suggest that systems
should not arbitrarily strip headers on incoming messages. If a
header was attached to a message, there was probably some reason for
it. These systems are choosing to arbitrarily damage a message.
Allowing a user to select which headers she does or does not want to
have displayed is a different matter altogether. I choose not to
display various headers, but occasionally have reason to go past my
user-interface filter to see the full set of headers.
--
Rick Busdiecker <rfb(_at_)lehman(_dot_)com> Please do not send electronic
junk mail!
Lehman Brothers Inc.
3 World Financial Center "Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the
New York, NY 10285-1100 majority." -- Justice John Paul Stevens, 19Apr95