🚀 go-pugleaf

I have noticed that a number of mailers will generate From: lines like:
  From: John Q. Public <JQP@MIT-AI.ARPA>
This is clearly wrong according to a strict interpretation of RFC-822,
since periods are not allowed in a 'phrase', unless they are part of a
'quoted-string', which must be enclosed in quotes.  Not only have I
found that several mailers use such syntax, but some RFCs as well!  (In
fact, the above line was taken from RFC-821, page 53.)  Is such syntax
acceptable, or should my mailer put quotes around all user names containing
periods?

On a related note, I have also seen the following header:
  In-Reply-To:  Your message of Tue, 30 May 89 15:49:35 EDT
Although it may look pretty, this header is also wrong according to RFC-822
since neither commas nor colons are allowed in a 'phrase'.  This header
would look a lot uglier if quotes were used, however.

Are all mailers that generate either of these two types of headers broken,
or am I missing something?  I know that there is a correction to the
RFC-822 'mailbox' definition in the Host Requirements RFC, but have there
been other changes that I missed?  Thanks in advance to anyone that can
enlighten me.

--
Disclaimer:  I speak only for myself.
Mark Harris <markh@caen.engin.umich.edu>