Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Message-ID: <MjnpI3y00WBwA9xz1K@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri,  2 Jun 1995 14:14:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Gardiner Myers <jgm+@CMU.EDU>
To: drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: address syntax
In-Reply-To: <199506012045.QAA11239@CS.UTK.EDU>
References: <199506012045.QAA11239@CS.UTK.EDU>
Beak: Is

Eric Thomas <ERIC@SEARN.SUNET.SE> writes:
> From a coder's perspective the real issue here is whether:
> 
>    "Joe".Doe  @whatever
>    Joe.Doe    @whatever
>    "Joe.Doe"  @whatever
> 
> are the same thing or not.

I believe the intention is that these all have the same semantic
meaning, but I agree that this is not made clear in the specification.

Another thing that is not made explicit is that free insertion of
whitespace and comments is not permitted inside a quoted-string.

> >> 5) The ability in 821 to use \-quoting inside a local-part
> 
> Removing this  would certainly break  a lot of  software. In fact  I have
> found  that the  use  of  \-quoting is  both  simplest  and most  robust,
> because, guess what, a lot of  software doesn't handle \" within a quoted
> string,    and    this   is    often    used    for   DECNET    addresses
> (ABC::XYZ%"whatever").

Could you give a more specific example of one or more SMTP servers
which handle \-quoting in a dot-string but not a quoted-string?

So you seem to be saying that the most we could ever do is state that
servers MUST accept \-quoting in dot-strings and clients SHOULD not
send much things.  If in fact we could even go that far.

At the very least, we need to explicitly point out this syntax
discrepancy in prose.

-- 
_.John G. Myers		Internet: jgm+@CMU.EDU
			LoseNet:  ...!seismo!ihnp4!wiscvm.wisc.edu!give!up