Newsgroups: bit.listserv.xmailer
Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 14:16:46 +0200
From:         "Alain FONTAINE (Postmaster - UCL)" <fontaine@SRI.UCL.AC.BE>
Subject:      Long lines, MIME, EBCDIC, etc : random thoughts.

It seems there are a lot of things to be said about the those topics. This is
not a proposal for THE solution, but rather some random pieces of information,
opinion, and more inqualifiable things.

- One writer says, in a way that sounds as a critic, that Internet standards
  are based on ASCII. Well, in my opinion, it is normal that open 'standards'
  (quotes to avoid the usual 'Internet standards are not true standards' flame)
  are based on other open standards, and not on some corporate 'standard'.
  Makes things a lot more fair, and also a lot easier, since ASCII is well
  defined, and EBCDIC is not. Before flames start again : Internet standard
  use the term 'ASCII' in its restricted acception, anyone using national
  variants of ISO646 in an Internet context is an outlaw. One other hand,
  users of IBM equipement have asked, through the most 'official' channels,
  their supplier to finally define a single reference version of EBCDIC for
  network purposes. The demand was accepted, the reply is not what was asked
  for, but rather a new, involded 'architecture' for character data
  representation. The complications of a general handling of NETDATA, put
  forth by the same writer, will look like a piece of cake in comparison.
- The impossibility the define a single, 'correct' translation table between
  ASCII and EBCDIC, because there is nothing like 'EBCDIC' in the first place,
  has plagued e-mail users on EBCDIC machines and networks for years. The
  effects may be described as benign if one only takes into account human
  reading, but becomes devastating once one looks at what happens to
  'processable' things. I can't count the number of times users at this site
  have had problem when receiving, for example, scientific papers in Tex
  source form.
- I don't feel the advent of MIME will make things substentially better or
  worse. Some things will improve (binary objets sent in base64 will suffer
  less than if sent in uuencode, for example), some things will probably
  get worse (if a MIME message carrying a simple text in good old ASCII,
  but now explicitly tagged by a MIME type and character set is translated
  into some other code by a gateway, it will of course become invalid if
  the tag is not changed, for example). But this feeling is the one of a
  techie. Final users will become less tolerant, because the problems will
  become more subtle and more difficult to understand, thus less tolerable.
- By the way, MIME is an architecture for the content of electronic messages,
  but the options used are declared in some new header fields. It is thus
  technically an extension of RFC822 (and *not* something illegal - unless
  one definitely forbids technical progress, even when obtained in the most
  correct way - that is, by first discussing and promulgating a new standard).
- I feel we now have the last occasion to discuss those matters, and find a
  proper solution. This is the last time, because users will want the new
  capabilities, and will want them without hassles. If a better service is
  available on microcomputers connected by a network to ASCII based servers
  connected to the Internet, you can expect the user base of EBCDIC machines
  connected to an EBDIC network (both already small minorities) to continue
  to decline at all places where a choice exists. And where the choice does
  not currently exist, users will put pressure on the right place to have
  new options available.
Do I really care ? Well, the demise of EBCDIC on this site is planned for
1995-6, and our mail connection to the world is going to switch from 'BITNET-
primary' to 'Internet-primary' before the summer. There are still a few
hundreds users on the VM/CMS machine whose removal is now planned, but
the are many more on the 900 (ASCII...) machines connected to our internal
IP network. So, partly because of the EBCDIC problem (the exact impact of
this single aspect is of course impossible to assess), I will lose access
to some tools I love (but as a professional, adapting is the essence of my
job). It is already too late here for this discussion to have a real impact
on important decisions. What will happen at *your* place ?

Disclaimer : the facts cited are available in print. The opinions are mine.
             Decide for yourself what's fact and what's opinion.

One possible solution for the 'long-lines' problem in a card based world
(a solution I thought of just 5 days ago) : simply put a '*' in column 6.

                                                               /AF
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU