Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!gatech!bbn!diamond.bbn.com!mlandau
From: mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: Re: "X-" blithering
Keywords: X
Message-ID: <11387@jade.BBN.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 88 19:00:09 GMT
References: <17601@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> <601@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <14977@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Reply-To: mlandau@bbn.com (Matt Landau)
Organization: BBN Systems and Technologies Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 13

In comp.mail.headers, matt@oddjob.UChicago.EDU writes:
>The point is not "What does it mean?" but rather "What the hell good
>is it?"  I think most of the "X-" headers ever used are useless 

The most useful X- header I've seen is X-Content-Type, an unofficial 
way of doing the Content-Type: header that Marvin Sirbu has proposed 
as an extension to 822 for mail systems capable of accepting and 
displaying different message types (text, PostScript, Andrew message 
format, Diamond encoded multimedia format, etc.)

On the other hand, X-Zippy-Quote-of-the-Day is at least amusing once 
in a while, and X-Return-Path can be a useful hint to a USER saddled
with a brain-dead mailer, whereas X-Mailer is just annoying.