On 13 Apr 2012, at 4:29, Benny Kj?r Nielsen wrote: > On 13 Apr 2012, at 9:26, Bill Cole wrote: > >> Unfortunately, the Mail.app powers that be have demonstrated with >> their >> abandonment of the standard ?format=flowed? line breaking >> strategy *IN >> ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE OUTLOOK USERS* that they don?t understand any >> concept of standards, only that of following the crowd. > > This is really sad. Since I don't have access to Outlook I am a bit > curios what the problem with `format=flowed` is for Outlook users? And > how quoted-printable could be a better solution to that problem? (If > anyone knows.)
The issue is insane. Note that prior to Snow Leopard, Mail.app generated format=flowed messages. The "problem" is that format=flowed was not recognized as meaning anything by Outlook. As a result, Outlook at best exhibited the expected behavior of a format-ignorant MUA and presented a message with fixed linebreaks. At worst (depending on version and config) it would re-wrap the message and put a notice to the user that it had removed "extra" linebreaks across the top of the message window. The only advantage to QP is that for years after the widespread adoption of RFC2646 and even after the "DelSp" tweak was added in RFC3676 the latest versions of Outlook used and only understood line-per-paragraph text encoded with QP as *the* way to do reflowable plain text. I don't have a definitive direct statement from the Mail.app people at Apple or from anyone who speaks for Apple, but Outlook-friendliness is the only rational reason to mimic its misbehavior. I have been told informally by someone at Apple who does not work on Mail.app that this was the reason for the downgrade in what it generates and that there was some stubbornness towards considering counter-arguments. I have heard conflicting reports about Outlook 2010 (which I can't readily test myself) supporting RFC3676. This is mildly amusing, but I have a sick sense of humor... >> There is evidence that Benny is wiser than the bozos writing >> Mail.app, ... > > Thanks for the confidence :-) What I had in mind would be something > like the interface for blocked images or (the experimental) interface > for PGP, that is, a banner shown at the top of the message with an > interpretation of the error and maybe a link to additional > information. But I would leave the message as it was below this. This > does not stop a user from sending a screenshot of just the banner, but > maybe it would be less likely to happen compared to the solution > described in the blog post. That would be better than the Exchange/Outlook misfeature. If this ever becomes something you have an urge to implement, please also keep in mind that an imprecise or incorrect translation of the standard codes into plain language is worse than none. Also, some uses of the standard codes are technically inaccurate for strategic purposes with the text part of the reply describing the real reason for failure in a manner that only a human can come close to interpreting. (FWIW, it is possible to make my Postfix machine say "554 5.1.1 Message Delivered Successfully" but I am known to be a jerk.)
