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

[Rick H Wesson <wessorh@ar.com>]

Dan,

your conversation about 8bit SMTP is completely out of scope for this
list/wg.

please, keep on topic and focused on idn issues.

-rick

On 3 Feb 2001, D. J. Bernstein wrote:

> 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
>