From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Marc Horowitz Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: base64 behavior is not MIME compliant Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:59:53 -0400 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1120453564 24347 80.91.229.2 (4 Jul 2005 05:06:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 05:06:04 +0000 (UTC) Cc: bugs@gnus.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jul 04 07:06:02 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DpJ9d-0001Gj-KM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:06:01 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DpJ6C-0004NQ-Kc for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 01:02:28 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DpJ5H-0004Li-N3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 01:01:31 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DpJ5E-0004KD-OM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 01:01:29 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DpJ5E-0004K3-K4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 01:01:28 -0400 Original-Received: from [69.25.196.71] (helo=central-air-conditioning.toybox.cambridge.ma.us) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DpJ9Q-0002MR-O1; Mon, 04 Jul 2005 01:05:48 -0400 Original-Received: by central-air-conditioning.toybox.cambridge.ma.us (Postfix, from userid 8888) id C71BA3C0C8; Mon, 4 Jul 2005 00:59:53 -0400 (EDT) Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-Reply-To: (Richard M. Stallman's message of "Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:43:04 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:40308 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:40308 "Richard M. Stallman" writes: >> Is there some situation in which the current behavior of >> base64-decode-region causes an actual problem or confusion for users? I never would have noticed this had it not caused me a problem. I received a piece of email which passed through an older MTA. This MTA inserted a ! and a newline after every 1000 characters of a very long line of base64-encoded data, which used to be common behavior. When Gnus tried to display this email, it failed, because the ! characters were not recognized as valid base64 encoding. >> Is there some situation in which the current behavior provides an >> advantage? The only case I can think of is if a program or the user tries to base64 decode something which is not base64 encoded, they will receive an error, instead of some other, possibly confusing behavior. However, I believe this case is less common than non-transparent MTAs making small changes to base64-encded data. >> Also, how does the current development Emacs handle these things? >> Your report is based on 21.4; the current sources may be different. I do not know. Marc