On Oct 10, 2009, at 11:23 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Right. To riff on the RFC vs. not theme ["Barry, pick up the bass line, need more bottom here!"], I think we should pick a list of RFCs we "promise" to implement as "defining" email; if we reserve any structures as "too obscure for us to parse," we should say so (and reference chapter and verse of the Holy RFC). On the other hand, of course as we discover common use cases for which precise specifications can be given, we should be flexible and implement them. But there should be no rush.
Although of course Rush is the most awesomest band EVAR. But I'm slappin' and poppin' to your groove here my bruthah.
Which RFCs? First of all, the STD 11 series (RFCs 733, 822, 2822, 5322). Here we have to worry about the standard's recommended format vs. the obsolete format because of the Postel principle. AFAIK, there is no reason not to insist on *producing* strictly RFC 5322 conformant messages, but I think we should implement both strict and lax parsers. The lax parser is for "daily use", the strict parser for validation. Second, the basic MIME structure RFCs: 2045-2049, 2231. (Some of these have been at least partially superseded by now, I think.) The mailing list header RFCs: 2369 and 2919.
Yep, yep, and yep.
Not RFCs, per se, but an auxiliary module should provide the registered IANA data for the above RFCs. Strictly speaking outside of the email module, but we make use of URLs (RFC 3986 -- superseded?) and mimetypes data (this overlaps substantially with the "registered IANA data". We need to coordinate with the responsible maintainers for those. Ditto coordinating with modules that we share a lot of structure with, the "not email but very similar" like HTTP (RFC 2616), and netnews (NNTP = 3397 and RFC 1036). Which extensions? Er, don't you think the above is enough for now?<wink>
Surely is, at least until that U$1M grant from the PSF comes through <wink>. Oh wait, we blew that on lunch at Pycon 2009.
-Barry
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