> How much more so then should we oppose > standards which benefit nobody while requiring a lot of work to no > purpose?
You're getting lost. The MIME standard (RFC 1341, June 1992) is what you started criticising and you're overlooking (a) that a phenomenal amount of effort went into establishing that standard; (b) that it has been of great service for many years; (c) that mailers like Outlook that continue to take liberties with the MIME headers have facilitated in no minor manner the ditribution of Trojan Horses and (d) no one has yet found it necessary or advisable to replace the MIME standard with a better one. I grant that back in 1992 one could not have foreseen all the possibilities that MIME ought to have addressed, but all things considered, I think the result was little short of miraculous. That you can criticise one aspect that in fact is not even at fault seems a bit facitious, at least to me. By all means propose an anlternative, but don't expect to find too many followers when you do. ++L
