Message-Id: <199511302152.NAA22892@netscape.com>
To: Jacob Palme <jpalme@dsv.su.se>
cc: ietf-drums <drums@cs.utk.edu>,
        Web4Groups User Requirements Mailing List <ratause@dsv.su.se>,
        mailnews-l@segate.sunet.se
From: Prabhat Keni <pkeni@netscape.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Subject: Re: On the use of 8-bit transfer 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 30 Nov 1995 17:38:27 +0100."
             <Pine.SUN.3.91.951130173422.11840I-100000@ester.dsv.su.se> 
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:51:00 -0800
Sender: pkeni@iapp9.mcom.com


> If 8-bit is customary in Usenet News, but should be avoided in e-mail,
> then this means that if the same message is sent to both news and
> e-mail, or forwarded between these two environments, then the message
> may have to be translated from 8-bit to 7-bit format (using
> Quoted-Printable or Base64) or the reverse in gateways between news and
> e-mail. Is this correct?

Seems like that. Since, INN, cnews et al are 8 bit clean (modulo NULs) a
portion of USENET has been already using 8-bit in not only bodies but
headers (relcom.*).  Some of these folks dont use MIME aware UAs and one
would presumably still want the "mailnews" message to be readable by them.
So, one approach could be send 8 bit on news path, send 7/8 bit MIME on
mail path with appropriate conversions when necessary.

If one assumes that MIME is not sent on news path, what happens when such
an instance of a "mailnews" message on news path later goes on the mail
path (gets forwarded), presumably one makes it into a MIME message, but
how does one know the charset for an 8-bit header or for that matter 8-bit
text/plain body?

-- 
Prabhat Keni.