🚀 go-pugleaf

RA> == atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil (Randall Atkinson) writes:
KK> == Kosta Kostis <kosta@blues.kk.sub.org>

 KK> Well, we don't have an 8-bit clean Internet yet, but I think we should
 KK> be working on instead of crying it can't be done. It can be done, and
 KK> should it take some time, so what.

So we should do it with a backward-compatible protocol extension, not "send
8 bits and pray".  Or should we "fix" SMTP so that it sends the message
even if there's nothing listening on port 25? :)

 RA> I *KNOW* of at least 3 systems (combinations of OS + hardware) that
 RA> will flat out crash if offered certain fairly common 8-bit
 RA> ISO-8859-like characters.  I'm not going to say which ones in public
 RA> because some lurker would go and use this to crash someone else's
 RA> machine maliciously.

 KK> I have never said one can do that *without* changing some software
 KK> at some places. So, what's the "nonsense" in here?

The "nonsense" is assuming that "just sending 8 bits" will work in the face
of these software issues.  There are three ways to send 8-bit email through
SMTP:

1) make agreements to "just send 8 bits".  Works within an enclave.

2) extend SMTP in some way to be guaranteed 8-bit compatible.

3) "just send it and hope it gets there okay."

The problem is that (1) tends to generalize into (3)...where the real
solution is (2).

Similar arguments apply to NNTP, since it's a traditional "TCP stream in
NETASCII" type protocol.

I'm certainly not insensitive to the needs of languages that don't fit in
USASCII.  However, I'm also not insensitive to the needs of sites that
could care less about 8-bit characters, have vendor-supplied software that
blows up on 8-bit data, and aren't prepared to upgrade immediately.

As soon as there's a compatible SMTP extension for 8 bits, I'll at least
try to hack it into my mailer (assuming the UIUC IDA sendmail folks don't
beat me to it).  But I won't install anything that tries to pull a Nike and
"Just Do It" to some unsuspecting mailer somewhere.
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