Re: [idn] Re: 7 bits forever! [X-idn]

[John C Klensin <klensin@jck.com>]

--On Saturday, 23 March, 2002 09:10 -0500 tedd
<tedd@sperling.com> wrote:

>> BTW, I am always seeing your email as an attachment... is
>> this the same for other in the mailing list? If so Valdis can
>> you please fix the way how you send out email first : >
>> 
>> David Leung
>> Chief Technology Officer
>> Neteka Inc.
>>...
> David:
> 
> What you are receiving from Valdis Kletnieks is a PGP
> signature block (see below). Some people don't realize that
> their email appears on the receiving-end as attachments. For
> example, from just this morning email, I have three unknown
> documents (Untitled, Untitled 1, Untitled 2) on my computer
> that I have to delete from this exchange.
> 
> I would like to know how to stop this, but I am sure in doing
> so, I would also be forced to stop all attachments -- which I
> don't want.

Tedd (and others),

"Stopping this" is actually very easy (at least in principle)
and involves four steps:

(i) You get yourself a MIME-competent mail reader.  Readers and
systems that break a multipart message into a bunch of files and
spread them across your system (without an easy way to deal with
them as a single message entity) are actually no more
MIME-competent than ones that don't recognize MIME headers and
structure at all.

(ii) You install it.

(iii) You stop trying to read or process mail with software that
has not been upgraded to conform to decade-old standards and
conventions.

(iv) You spend a bit of time contemplating this experience any
time someone tells you (or you tell someone else) how rapidly a
change in the interpretation of a string or format or protocol
option will be propagated across the network.  You also spend
some additional time contemplating how much such un-upgraded
software will confuse users when it does
seemingly-incomprehensible things without explanation.  And, if
external constraints on your system environment don't permit you
to install an upgraded mail system, you contemplate what _that_
means relative to dissemination of changed/upgraded software if
a WG assumes that will happen.

The fourth is recommended even for those who have already gotten
past the first three stages.

    john