[Alpine-info] long MIME encoded-word subject lines

[Dirk Stöcker]

On Mon, 19 May 2008, Mark Crispin wrote:


>>  I don't think that's happening, though.  My email is on an IMAP server, so

>>  I just fired up Thunderbird and the problem subject lines look fine with

>>  it, and if I do View -> Message Source, the subject line is *not* broken

>>  into multiple lines.

>

> Like Outlook, Thunderbird does not comply with the MIME standard, which 

> explicitly states that over-long encoded-words MUST NOT be decoded, much less 

> created in the first place.

>

> Sadly, it seems that obeying the rules makes people unhappy and blame us 

> instead of putting the blame where it belongs.  We've thrown in the towel in 

> the next version of Alpine and disobey the rules too.


"Be liberal with what you accept and strict with what you produce."

always applies to software.

If you really want to enforce standards, then optionally show the encoding 
errors of received mail. Wrongly interpreting the input is always the 
wrong way.

Ciao
-- 
http://www.dstoecker.eu/ (PGP key available)