At 12:19 PM 1/16/97 -0800, Eric Paul-Hus wrote:
>Please don't answer Marcel Marceau ;-)
 
Unless he posts, I won't answer him  :-)
 
>When I receive bounces from listserv.browm.edu they contain:
>> From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[log in to unmask]>
>[...]
>> MIME-Version: 1.0
>> Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="HAA20250.853416298/listserv.brown.edu"
>>
>> This is a MIME-encapsulated message
>
>Now since the bounces are MIME-encapsulated I wonder if the messages
>sent out by listserv.brown.edu when processing the mail files received
>by
>BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU are also MIME-encapsulated or strictly look like the
>originals ...
 
When I started to answer this, I thought I understood your question, but
now I see I may not.  Can you rephrase it?  If you're asking if non-MIME
mail sent to your list gets sent out as MIME, I hope not!
 
>Aren't there some sites that severely resrict incoming
>traffic MIME types ?
 
None that I've ever heard of.  Now, some restrict by *size* (one of my
ISP's has a 2MByte limit on messages; juno.com, I've heard, has a limit
of only 61440 bytes) -- and MIME makes it easy to attach huge files,
so in a very rough sense, MIME may be restricted (since you're unlikely
to send me 2MB without using something to "attach" something).
MIME is now a standard for "attachments."
 
>I was only wondering if that MIME thing can cause trouble between
>mailers
>MIME vs non-MIME , MIME 1.0 vs X.X ?
 
The RFC defines "MIME-Version: 1.0" as the header, and leaves the syntax
open for further versions, but there are none beyond 1.0 defined yet.
Non-MIME mailers which meet RFC 822 (which dates from 1982) will be able
to see the contents as text, provided it *is* text.  However, if they
don't understand "quoted-printable" (for example) it will look odd,
and a binary attachment will be unreadable (although if cut and directed
to the proper tool, may be usable nonetheless).
 
The idea of "1.0" is, I think, to look forward to being later able to
have backward-compatibility.
 
>PS For those who wonder MIME stands for, if memory, serves Multimedia
>Internet Mail Extension ...
 
Pretty close.  It's actually "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions".
The gory details can be found in RFC 1521 and RFC 1522, if you care.
I have a URL for them somewhere, but you should be able to easily find
them with a web search, since they're stored in several places.
 
Hope that helps,
Stan