🚀 go-pugleaf

Given: we want to update to 8-bit news.

Also given: quite a few sites will not update, no matter how much we
scream.  How to solve this?  Here's a suggestion:

For any news article that has 8-bit characters in it, include a special
header indicating the fact.  This header itself will contain eight-bit
characters, and will be structured in such a way that it is very likely
to be trashed by a 7-bit link, but that a recognizable residue will
come through.  Something like:

Character-Set: <stuff with 8-bit characters and a checksum here>

This header can also be used to specify which character set is in use,
where it matters.

Now there are three cases:

First, the article may go through an 8-bit-clean link.  If so, it comes
out OK.

Second, the article may go through a 7-bit link with intelligent
system administrators on both ends.  The articles are encoded using
some protocol and decoded on the other end, so that an 8-bit-clean
link is produced on top of a 7-bit channel.

In either of these cases, the article comes out unscathed.  The final case
is the one everyone is worried about: such articles go through a seven-bit
link using old software.  At the other end, the Character-Set header is
altered: the leading "Character-Set:" comes through, but what follows will
not be correct.  Sites with up-to-date software know that such articles
are likely to be corrupt, and simply drop them on the floor.
--
Joe Buck	jbuck@ohm.berkeley.edu