Rick:
 
On Mon, 11 Dec 1995, Rick Troth wrote:
 
>         Right.   So I encourage folks to avoid QP if possible.
 
Unless the sender of the mail configures their mailer to sent 8-bit
characters as is (Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8-bit), they may not have any
choice if they want to carry on dialog in a language other than English
that has characters other than those found in the original 127 characters
of the American Secret Code for Imperial Influence.  Even if they *did*
send them out as 8-bit characters, there are many systems along the way in
Internet that still strip 8-bit characters completely from e-mail, so they
would not get to everyone.  Furthermore, LISTSERV uses the EBDIC codes
for storing and, although I am not 100% clear on what the EDBIC standard
is or why it is used, I *am* clear on personal knowledge that if you
attempt to store a file in a LISTSERV VM archive, either in a file, or as
a part of a list LOG archive, the 8-bit characters are changed around so
that when they are retrieved, by ANY means, they are not the 8-bit
characters they are supposed to be.
 
I am not aware of the means to configure a mail program such as Pine to
sent 8-bit characters instead of QP or BASE64 encoding the message and
it's not because I have't looked for a way to do it.
 
QP may not be ideal, but it's a workable means of getting most of the
characters to most of the people who need them most of the time and I am
pleased to hear that the next version of LISTSERV will incorporate the
ability to understand and properly decode (and store, if applicable)
messages sent to it that use either BASE64 or QP encoding.
 
Please bear in mind that the person who initiated this thread was
concerned about proper storage of files containing some Albanian language
characters.  Barring using the methods I decribed several days ago, the
only solution at this point is to use BITNET to store the files and then
F=MIME to get them... or you will just have to wait for 1.8c.
 
Cheers
 
Mark Hunnibell                  Email: [log in to unmask]
KIDLINK Gopher/WWW Coordinator  http://www.connix.com/~markh/index.html