Re: Comments on draft-resnick-2822upd-02.txt

In <[email protected]> [email protected] 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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