[idn] I don't want 8-bit failures in 2011

["D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to>]

Dave Crocker writes:
> It is approximately the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the effort to 
> make Internet mail support "international character-sets".

It has been nearly twenty years since people realized how stupid it was
to mangle 8-bit mail. But there is still no IETF specification saying
that it's bad for Sendmail to destroy bytes 128 through 159 in the
header of a message.

In fact, in the world according to Crocker, it's perfectly acceptable
for a new MTA to prohibit 8-bit text in the _body_ of a message!

Of course, such an MTA will fail to interoperate with hundreds of
thousands of machines running qmail, Exim, Sendmail with the 8 flag,
etc. But Crocker says he's right and they're all wrong.

What I find most amazing is that Crocker keeps claiming success. His
own MTA (MMDF) has withered and practically died, along with all its
commercial spinoffs; his rules are widely disobeyed by popular MTAs, as
demanded by the users and system administrators; and he still doesn't
get the message. He is out of touch with reality.

Back to 8-bit headers: We wouldn't be faced with Sendmail's 8-bit bugs
today if the IETF had required 8-bit-clean software ten years ago. But
the IESG followed Crocker's approach. Now he wants us to continue down
the same path, extending this disaster for another ten years. And _he_
says that _I_ am not learning the lessons of history!

---Dan