Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!ka
From: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: user-editable mail headers
Message-ID: <8408242059.AA08504@ihnp4.ATT.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Aug-84 16:59:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou3c.797
Posted: Fri Aug 24 16:59:34 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Aug-84 01:12:27 EDT
References: <WANCHO.12041862597.BABYL@SIMTEL20>
Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Lines: 31
To: WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA
Cc: GDS@MIT-XX.ARPA, Header-People@MIT-MC.ARPA
In-Reply-To: <WANCHO.12041862597.BABYL@SIMTEL20>

Frank,
   I disagree with the way you interpret standards.  If you write a
program with a syntactically incorrect statement in it, would you
try to tell the compiler writer that the compiler should accept the
program anyway as long as the statement was not executed?  It is true
that the message in question had a Sender: field which indicated the
real sender of the message and a Reply-to: field which indicated where
replies were to be sent to.  The fact that the From: field was not
used for these purposes does not mean that it is OK for the From:
field to be syntactically incorrect.

I do not check the syntax of every entry in a mail header.  However,
RFC 822 requires gateways to parse From: fields.  In section 6.2.2 it
says:
	This standard permits abbreviated domain specification....
        When a message crosses a domain boundary, all  addresses  must
        be  specified  in  the  full format, ending with the top-level
        name-domain in the right-most field.  It is the responsibility
        of  mail  forwarding services to ensure that addresses conform
        with this requirement.  In the case of abbreviated  addresses,
        the  relaying  service must make the necessary expansions.


Presumably RFC 822 is intended to specify the format of ARPANET mail.
It follows that any mailer which sends out nonconforming messages
is broken.  I should not be told to fix *my* software to deal with such
messages.  I gather that the mailer on MIT-XX doesn't bother to check
the syntax of user specified From: lines on the grounds that users are
not supposed to make mistakes.  That is not the mark of a quality piece
of software.
				Kenneth Almquist