Jacob Haller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
rex wrote:
>>Unless there is a pressing reason to keep them, LSOFT ought to get rid of
>>the extra spaces in future versions.
>[. . .]
>
>I don't know if this is a pressing reason or not, but it's pretty clear
>that LISTSERV does this to improve legibility of headers.  This is similar
>to the nice way it sets up the "Received:" lines:
[snip]
>Similarly, the following lines are lined up:
>
>>Date:         Thu, 20 Aug 1998 00:14:18 -0700
>>Subject:      Re: excess spaces after subject:
>>Content-Type: text

Different strokes, I guess. Since most lines have one space after the
colon, that's what I'm used to seeing. Extra spaces are distracting
to me, though the Received: lines are easy to read.

>For what it's worth, I sent mail to Microsoft complaining that its handling
>of subject headers was non-RFC822-compliant, but I never heard back from
>them.

I'm not surprised. M$ has a history of preferring to add "features" over
fixing bugs. They also have a history of breaking standards and essentially
saying "tough."

>I'd agree that, if it's easy to do, L-Soft should consider getting rid of
>the inserted spaces in the "Subject:" line, but I wouldn't consider it too
>high a priority since it's just an inconvenience and it's caused by the
>noncomplience of the mail clients.

Yes, I can certainly understand a reluctance to bother with fixing a
"problem" that wouldn't exist if other folks had RFC compliant
software. The optimal solution would be to have an option to include
the extra spaces, or not. I actually know folks who are still using a
QWK reader to read list mail. The 5 extra spaces gives them a 20
character subject line (for those who don't remember, QWK truncates
subjects at 25 characters).

-rex