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Re: Content-Length harmful



On Mon, Nov 30, 1998 at 09:49:12PM -0500, Michael Stone wrote:

> Cool. So what part of debian policy covers the non-linux machines I share
> the mail spool with?

What, you don't install Debian on _all_ your machines?  (Just kidding)

> (I.e., dhesi isn't transparent enough a solution for something that's
> already deployed.)

I guess you missed my point.

I was saying that mbox, as it is, corrupts messages.  I can send you a
message that says:

	>From what camel dost the cavern fall?
	From the pink camel, of course.  Yeesh.
	
And it will appear in your mbox as follows:

	>From what camel dost the cavern fall?
	>From the pink camel, of course.  Yeesh.
	
mbox corrupts messages, period.  Here's what you would see if you used a
dhasi MDA and an mbox MUA:

	>>From what camel dost the cavern fall?
	>From the pink camel, of course.  Yeesh.
	
Not much better, but no worse.  Similarly, if you use an mbox MDA and a
dhasi MUA:

	From what camel dost the cavern fall?
	From the pink camel, of course.  Yeesh.
	
This looks bad, but pure-mbox is just as bad.  Look up above again.

However, in contrast, a pure dhasi system would show you the following:

	>From what camel dost the cavern fall?
	From the pink camel, of course.  Yeesh.
	
Which is, of course, the exact message I sent.

A partial dhasi system is no better than mbox, but no worse.  A completely
dhasi system is much better, and if we want a completely dhasi system, we
can't be afraid to leave mbox.

What a neat word, dhasi.

Have fun,

Avery


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