Re: Bug#3253: Pine over-encodes files (came from Bug#932)
dwarf@polaris.net (Dale Scheetz) wrote on 13.06.96 in <[🔎] Pine.LNX.3.93.960613161452.7806C-100000@dwarf.polaris.net>:
> On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
>
> > It looks, from reading this, as if you've seriously confused MIME and
> > BASE64. Please tell me this isn't true...
> >
> > I can see why Pine might lead one to believe that MIME and BASE64 were
> > the same, given that it is so resistant to doing anything with MIME
> > without also BASE64ing everything in sight.
> >
> Well, Base64 IS the encoding scheme used by Mime, right? The confusion is
Wrong.
Base64 is _one_ encoding scheme used by MIME. There are three: base64,
quoted-printable, and none.
Furthermore, those encoding schemes are about the least interesting part
of MIME.
The most important thing there is in MIME is content labelling. Then,
IMHO, comes multipart messages. And only then encoding.
> over when an attachment (I read MIME here, right?) should Base64 encode a
> file to be attached.
> The Pine developers say: Gee, they want this included as an attachment,
> they must need to protect it, so, let's encode it! If they didn't want it
> encoded they would just have inserted it into the message!
And this is, as I have already pointed out in another message, just plain
stupid.
> Seriously, use control R unless you REALLY want Base64 encoding. Then and
> only then can you make it an attachment.
Understand about MIME. There is absolutely no reason why an attachment is
any different from your "main message".
In fact, MIME doesn't even _have_ the concept of "attachments". That's an
envention of systems like MS-Mail.
MIME has multipart messages. All those parts are equal. Each one can be
plain text, each one can be a GIF, each one can be an included mail, and
so on - and each one could as well be different.
The mail user agent should not presume to know what you want to do.
> For those of you who can't deal with this solution, I can only say:
>
> You and the Pine Developers go to neutral corners, and only come out
> fighting after I have left the room. (I don't like religios wars)
This is just as much a religious war as when someone insists the correct
spelling for a certain continent is "Ameerika" - i.e., NOT.
MfG Kai
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