I have some thoughts about creating a standard message
object! and I would like to hear your input.
Across the Internet, whether it be in e-mail, newsgroups,
bulletin board systems, or Web pages, the most
common form of communication is the message.
Messages have common values, illustrated as follows:
EMAIL
-----
From:
Subject:
Content:
NEWS
----
From:
Subject:
Content:
BULLETIN BOARD
--------------
Author:
Subject:
Comment:
NEWS STORY
----------
Byline:
Headline:
Body:
...and I'm sure there are more comparisons I cannot think
of at the moment.
Because of these similarities, I suggest that a standard
message object! be developed so that information can
easily be exchanged between mediums.
Furthermore, functions should be developed for converting
messages from the e-mail, news, etc., formats into the
standard message object! and vice-versa.
But what values should be included in the message
object! ?
A news posting, for example, may include the following
headers...
From
Subject
Date
Newsgroups
Path
In-Reply-To
Message-ID
References
MIME-Version
Content-Type
Lines
NNTP-Posting-Host
X-Trace
NNTP-Posting-Date
Organization
Xref
Followup-To
Content-Transfer-Encoding
X-Complaints-To
X-Mailer
X-Accept-Language
Reply-To
X-Newsreader
X-Priority
X-MSMail-Priority
X-MimeOLE
User-Agent
X-Abuse-to
X-Comments
X-Anon
X-Mail-To-News-Contact
X-Mimeole
X-Sender
X-Server-Date
X-MIMEOLE
X-Abuse-Info
X-Anon-1
X-Anon-2
X-No-Archive
Sender
While an e-mail message may include the following
headers...
Received
Return-path
To
From
Reply-To
Date
Subject
Organization
Message-Id
X-REBOL
MIME-Version
Content-Type
Precedence
X-MindSpring-Loop
Content-transfer-encoding
Priority
In-reply-to
References
X-mailer
X-SELMA
X-PMFLAGS
Bulletin Board messages and News Articles have their
own formats, as well. Is there a standard message
object! that could be developed and re-used?
For example...
make object! [
Author:
Date:
Subject:
Body:
Message-ID:
MIME-Version:
Content-Type:
Origin:
]
Are more values than the above needed for a standard
message object?
-Ryan
