Re: LYNX-DEV Re: MIME charset headers for mail

[Klaus Weide]

On Sun, 13 Apr 1997, Hynek Med wrote:
> 
> I tried to send a mail without Content-Type header, but with other MIME
> headers, and somebody on the way (I suppose one of the sendmails 8.x) 
> added there: 
> 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit
> 
> So, do you suggest:
> 
> a) ignoring the MIME altogether
> b) saying charset=unknown-8bit
> 
> I'd speak for b), if it's allowed by the norms. My reasons are that when
> there aren't any MIME headers, MTAs sometimes treat the document as real
> US-ASCII and strip the top bit..

I would expect that the Content-Transfer-Encoding header field (which
could be 7BIT or 8BIT) is more important here.  That should tell a MTA
not to strip the top bit if it is set to 8BIT.

Setting charset to unknown-8bit if there is not better information is ok,
I guess, since (some) sendmail(s) would do it anyway...

Since you seem to be in an adventurous mood: Have you tried the UTF 8
display character set?  Would be interesting to see what mail is generated
from that one.  It might even be valid...

 Klaus 

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