Re: Way to define character set when doing newspost? LYNX-DEV

[Foteos Macrides]

Hynek Med <address@hidden> wrote:
>On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, H E Nelson wrote:
>
>> Headers of posts from Lynx Version 2.7.1ac-0.28 read:
>>      'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit'.
>
>Hm, you have to talk with Klaus about it.. I think it's because Lynx
>doesn't insert the charset name for Japanese charsets, and some
>sendmail/whatever on the way adds there unknown-8bit..
>
>> I was also puzzled by this header:
>>      `Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64'.
>> I assumed that Lynx had added this by default.  If I were using EUC,
>> would I want `Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit'?
>
>It's probably because some sendmail/whatever on the way converts 8bit
>MIME to base64.. 

        You both need to be clear that posting (or sending followups) to
Usenet groups versus sending email to Internet or local addresses are
completely different things, that are handled by completely different
LYfoo and libwwwFM modules.  The development code does not add Content-Type
or Content-Transfer-Encoding headers to Usenet posts, unless you add them
yourself to the header section of the temporary file that is passed to
your editor.  When you finish editing, the contents of that temporary
file are sent directly to the Usenet news host, and no "sendmail/whatever"
is interposed.  The only change in the development code relative to the
vanilla v2.7-1 or fotemods code is that the list elements for group or
article listings have end tags added when the sortaSGML parser is being
used, because in that case the elements are declared SGML_MIXED instead
of SGML_EMPTY.  That has nothing to do with posting (or sending followups)
to Usenet groups.

        The vanilla v2.7-1, fotemods, and development code also handle
mailto ACTIONs for FORMs identically (i.e., there have been no changes).
The Content-Type is included, based on the FORM's ENCTYPE, for any
multipart/formdata content.  No charset parameter is appended.

        In the development code built with EXP_CHARTRANS defined, Klaus
adopted Hynek's suggestion to include the Content-Type with a charset
parameter corresponding to the display charset when acting on mailto HREFs,
but it is not added for the CJK or any "x-" charsets, and there are no
checks for whether that charset actually is being used by the editor to
generate the message body.  The development code also adds a
Content-Transfer-Encoding header claiming 8-bit in all cases, without any
checks that the message body contains 8-bit characters.  The headers thus
could contain false or misleading information, and force "sendmail/whatever"
to cope, as best it can, with an 8-bit encoding situation that may or may
not actually exist, and in conjunction with Content-Type info that may or
may not be present, and may or may not have an accurate charset parameter
appended.  I presume Henry is referring, above, to email, not Usenet posts,
and that he is describing an adverse consequence of these ill-advised mods.

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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