Subject: RE: MIME character sets, and an apology

From: John C Klensin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1993 09:37:06 -0400 (EDT)

Thanks Ned, for that posting.  One thing I probably should add to what
I said yesterday.

The current theory about what to do about the proliferation of MIME-
defined character sets is to start issuing Applicability Statements at
some point that identify things as, e.g., "good", "not-so-good", and
"probably you shouldn't use this trash".  Now IETF has been a lot better
at talking about A/Ss than about doing them.  And the feeling has been
to let experience accumulate for some months before trying to get serious
about this one.

However, if someone has a theory on which such a document could be built,
I'd be happy to see a draft proposal.

In the meantime and thereafter, mail systems must be prepared to receive
character set specifications they haven't heard of before and to handle
them in a fairly graceful way.  And the meaning of "graceful" is very much
a matter of taste.

    --john

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From: Ned Freed <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1993 21:10:41 -0700 (PDT)

> to let experience accumulate for some months before trying to get serious

I've been calling these things profiles. (A legacy of ANSI committee-speak? I
don't know where I came up with the term.) I stand corrected and will start
using the term "applicability statement" instead.

> I'd be happy to see a draft proposal.

Hmm. Well, this would probably end up as a matter for ietf-charsets, and I'm
still smarting from my last scuffle in that venue. So I think I'll plead "too
busy for me to do all by myself" for the time being, and see if we cannot come
up with a design team to formulate at least the skeleton of such a document. 

Thanks for your note.

				Ned