Re: Full Headers?

[Brian Stafford <brian stafford uklinux net>]

On Tue, 10 July 16:48 balsa@microwave.com wrote:
> 
> Ok, I cede the point.
> 
> Regardless, it really doesnt matter in the context I was using, since the
> resrictions on format would all be imposed on the creator of the message.
> 
> The feature I was talking about was to just display the full unmodified
> source as it is received, regardless of which standard it was created for.
> I wasnt talking about the specific syntaxes of the headers, I was simply
> referring to the concept of having the message displayed, with all the
> headers first, the blank seperator line, and then the body as transmitted
> by the underlying structure, WITHOUT any decoding having been applied..

I was making the point about the correct standard rather than commenting
on the message presentation in the UA.

My own opinion:

Given that RFC 2821 (and 821) only permit an MTA to add Received: and
Return-Path: headers to the *start* of a message (albiet with some latitude
for changing content transfer encoding in MIME documents).

a) an MUA should be liberal in what it accepts as messages and should make
   a reasonable attempt at presentation.

b) since trace headers are useful, an MUA should show headers in the
   order they are present in the message when viewing all headers.
   The ordering of Received: and Resent-*: headers is important.
   When viewing minimal or selected headers, the presentation can be
   beautified somewhat.

c) since some MTAs are fond of mutilating messages (Exchange, sendmail ...)
   it should be possible to view the message exactly as received with
   no attempt at formatting whatsoever.

Balsa seems to do a) reasonably.  b) when viewing full headers they seem
to be sorted or rearranged somehow.  c) is missing.  I always found
Netscape's "View Message Source" option useful.  Since we use exchange at
work, I get a lot of mutilated mail!

Brian