FEDORA net etiquette

[Tim]

g:
>>> mime is a waste.

Tim:
>> No, not at all.  With MIME you get information on content encoding
>> and/or content type,

g:
> this i understand. where i believe it to be a waste is when a
> plain text file is attached and it is converted to mime.

Nine times out of ten, there is no "conversion".  If the text can be
represented in the same encoding scheme as the message, the attachment
just has a descriptive header (2 to 4 lines of text), and the content is
the same text.  If the text can't be used directly, then it's encoded in
something like base64, with a MIME header, and both parts are
*essential* to error-free transmission and reception.  It's not
converted to MIME, that's just the meta information *about* the content.

> also, a waste is to send a text message in 'base64'.

There are so many things which cannot transmit 8-bit clean, still (such
as any text with accent marks in it, or symbols).  So some form of
encoding is *necessary* for content that cannot be sent as 7-bit-only,
natively.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.26.6-79.fc9.i686

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