Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:2060 alt.religion.computers:31 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!mica.berkeley.edu!wisner From: wisner@mica.Berkeley.EDU (Bill Wisner) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,alt.religion.computers Subject: Re: binmail vs MMDF mail file format Message-ID: Date: 6 Jul 89 19:11:07 GMT References: <113918@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: Verrifast Plaine Co Ltd Lines: 47 In-reply-to: argv%eureka@Sun.COM's message of 6 Jul 89 06:37:57 GMT In article <113918@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> argv%eureka@Sun.COM (Dan Heller) writes: >> On the other hand, I see "^From " in messages >> quite frequently. Well, actually, it's "^>From " that I see frequently. >> UNIX's stoopid mail format insures that no line which starts with the word >> From will survive intact. This mangling of mail is completely unwarranted. >> This sorry excuse for a mailbox format should have been retired years ago. >Several problems with your observations I think. No, I don't think so. >1) Any line that starts with "From " will turn into a ">From" line as soon > as a sendmail system finds it. You're blaming an MUA for a fault of the > MTA. This has nothing to do with Mail, Mush or MH. I didn't blame the bloody MUA, I blamed the mail format. That was the topic of my message, got it? Not which interface is best but which format is best. And UNIX mail format is not best. >2) "From " is not the message separator -- the message separator is: > "From
\n" That is as may be, but none of the delivery agents that use the UNIX mail format bother to make that little distinction. Lines that begin with "From " (or even "from ") get munched. >I have just pointed out that logistically, the two formats are functionally >the same. The advantage that unix-mail format has over MMDF format is the >fact that you can't send ^A's in mail messages. Baloney. MMDF will never modify a message regardless of what a line begins with. And you can't mail \001s *period*. Won't fly. Mailers don't do it. It has nothing to do with the file format you use. >As a result, you can't mail MMDF folders to another site any more easily >than you can send a unix-format folder. In both cases, the folder has to >be modified somehow. What does this have to do with anything? Nobody has said anything in this discussion about mailing folders except for you. Sending a folder via normal mail paths is insane. You simply can't expect them to arrive intact, although that might happen if you're lucky. Bill Wisner wisner@mica.berkeley.edu ucbvax!mica!wisner I'm not the NRA either.