Actually it seems to be RFC822 compliant, but it is a bad idea anyhow. Have you ever seen the way long subject lines are being treated? Under some circumstances, they get spaces in the middle of the subject as well.

FrankL

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: Jim Serwinowski [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Verzonden: dinsdag 4 december 2001 21:26
> Aan: LSTSRV-L
> Onderwerp: Re: [LSTSRV-L] prepending spaces to the subject line
> 
> 
> Thanks Peter. And I bet if you look at the Date: line, that 
> has spaces too!
> 
> Now here's the real interesting part: In pine 4.05 in full 
> header mode,
> *ALL* the lines (Date:, To:, From:, Subject:) have spaces. In 
> fact, they all
> line up with the "Content-Type:"
> 
> An example, from my pine 4.05:
> 
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> Message-ID:  
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Date:         Tue, 4 Dec 2001 15:01:38 -0500
> Reply-To:     [log in to unmask]
> Sender:       Test List <[log in to unmask]>
> From:         Jim Serwinowski <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:      testing
> To:           [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> I think we can safely say that Listserv is definately adding 
> spaces, but
> somehow different mail clients seem to display it 
> differently, either in
> full header mode or not (Outlook Express).
> 
> Now the question is why, and I think I have the answer - It's for the
> archives. The html code for the messages in the archives uses 
> <pre> tags
> to format the header of the message so that it all lines up, like it's
> been tabbed. Take a look and you'll see everything is spaced 
> out to line up
> with "Content-Type: ". Since they use <pre> tags and not 
> tables, the only way
> to do that is with extra spaces.
> 
> So to answer John's original question:
> 
> "Anyone want to venture an opinion on why the spaces are 
> being prepended?"
> 
> I'm going with - "To make the web archives look nice and pretty."
> 
> However, I believe this is a bad idea, especially for the 
> Outlook Express
> folk. If indeed the web archives are the reason behind it, 
> they can do the
> same effect with tables instead of <pre> tags and save people 
> some headaches.
> 
> -Jim
> 
> --
> Jim Serwinowski                 [log in to unmask]
> UB Listserv Administrator       http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu
> 
> 
> On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Peter Rauch wrote:
> 
> > Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 10:55:20 -0800
> > From: Peter Rauch <[log in to unmask]>
> > Reply-To: LISTSERV give-and-take forum 
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: prepending spaces to the subject line
> >
> > On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Jim Serwinowski wrote:
> > > Subject: Re: [LSTSRV-L] prepending spaces to the subject line
> > >
> > > Look at any message in this thread except one that you may
> > > have composed yourself and look at it using full headers. Do
> > > you see the spaces in the "Subject: " line?
> > >
> > > I do, and I use pine 4.21.
> >
> > Jim, I use Pine 4.21 (on a Sun system) and if I view the Subject
> > line with headers NOT full, the line does not have extra spaces.
> >
> > If I view it with FULL headers on, then I see five _extra_
> > spaces.
> >
> > If I "export" the messages while FULL headers are on, the
> > Subject line is exported with five _extra_ spaces. With full
> > headers off, no extra spaces are included.
> >
> >
> > Here is how the two renderings look:
> >
> > Subject: Re: [LSTSRV-L] prepending spaces to the subject line
> > Subject:      Re: [LSTSRV-L] prepending spaces to the subject line
> >
> > Neither contain TAB in the exported copy (there are some
> > _leading_ TABs in the exported FULL-headers copy of other, long,
> > header lines).
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
> >
> 
>