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From: John H Meyers on 23 Nov 2009 19:43
On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:39:18 -0600, Jim Thompson wrote:

>> [UTF-8 plugin]
>> http://www.windharp.de/software/utf8iso.htm

> Does that plug-in cure the problem that I have where E-mail
> sent to me from certain cellphone E-mail clients
> inserts "=20" wherever a space should be?

"=20" is a phenomenon of QP, rather than of UTF-8 per se.

Eudora automatically decodes QP when headers are all correct.

There have been several recent reports of some sources
of "broken headers," resulting in seeing undecoded QP,
symptoms of which are "=xx" all over the place, long lines "wrapped" etc.
(whereas UTF-8 has other weird substitutes for non-ascii characters)

One of Brana Bujenovic's fine plugins can be used,
to manually decode any as yet undecoded QP:

"Quoted Printable Encoder/Decoder"
http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/plugins.htm#qp
http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/qp.zip

This plugin adds menu items, for manual use, to Eudora's menu
Edit > Message Plug-ins

About QP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoted-printable

--
From: Jim Thompson on 23 Nov 2009 20:21
On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:43:47 -0600, "John H Meyers"
<jhmeyers(a)nomail.invalid> wrote:

>On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:39:18 -0600, Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>>> [UTF-8 plugin]
>>> http://www.windharp.de/software/utf8iso.htm
>
>> Does that plug-in cure the problem that I have where E-mail
>> sent to me from certain cellphone E-mail clients
>> inserts "=20" wherever a space should be?
>
>"=20" is a phenomenon of QP, rather than of UTF-8 per se.
>
>Eudora automatically decodes QP when headers are all correct.
>
>There have been several recent reports of some sources
>of "broken headers," resulting in seeing undecoded QP,
>symptoms of which are "=xx" all over the place, long lines "wrapped" etc.
>(whereas UTF-8 has other weird substitutes for non-ascii characters)
>
>One of Brana Bujenovic's fine plugins can be used,
>to manually decode any as yet undecoded QP:
>
>"Quoted Printable Encoder/Decoder"
>http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/plugins.htm#qp
>http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/qp.zip
>
>This plugin adds menu items, for manual use, to Eudora's menu
>Edit > Message Plug-ins
>
>About QP:
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoted-printable

"manually"? but not automatically :-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
From: John H Meyers on 24 Nov 2009 03:04
On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:21:03 -0600, Jim Thompson wrote:

[here we have diverted into discussion of QP encoding,
having dropped discussion of UTF-8,
which was actually what had started this thread]

JHM:
>> "Quoted Printable Encoder/Decoder"
>> http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/plugins.htm#qp
>> http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/qp.zip
>>
>> This plugin adds menu items, for manual use, to Eudora's menu
>> Edit > Message Plug-ins

Jim Thompson:
> "manually"? but not automatically :-(

"Automatically" is already built into Eudora!

However, if headers do not say that a message is MIME formatted,
and futher is supposed to be interpreted as QP, then it would be
a mistake to go ahead anyway and "interpret" all "=20" as spaces,
for example -- if you did that, then you would not even
be able to see the "=xx" which I just deliberately wrote,
but would see only a quoted space, if my message was sent
without QP encoding, or if a plugin further decoded
any message which was already automatically decoded by Eudora,
such as this one (my news client has probably sent this as QP,
even though it isn't warranted by its pure ascii content,
without long lines)

You can also get the idea by sending yourself
a plaintext message in Eudora, with no non-ascii characters
and no long lines, with some formula like "4*5=20"
which would be mangled by any "always assume QP and decode it" action,
occurring even when not justified by any indication at all.

Plenty of other software is ill thought out, making assumptions
that you can't turn off, which lead to unfortunate consequences
and limitations, but thankfully, Brana's plugins are well thought out.

The reason that some other mail readers decode QP when Eudora doesn't,
with less risk of the type of mistake above, is that they take certain headers
as a "strong hint" that a message is MIME formatted,
even if no "MIME-Version: 1.0" header says so,
whereas Eudora strictly follows the rule that such a header is required,
though it is often missing when the main headers section gets "broken."

At the present time, the "hint" assumption has a higher probability
of being right, and thus "corrects" some malformed messages, some of the time,
depending critically upon what other headers might also be missing,
but Eudora is not incorrect to be based on standards, and not to attempt
"fixing" malformed messages, which still has a chance of being wrong.

It still remains a responsibility of the sender to compose valid mail,
and not a duty of the recipient to try to diagnose and repair significant errors,
which can take so many variant forms that it could become
a substantial AI project to try to develop thoroughly,
particularly not likely in a free plugin.

My snail-mail bills, by the way, arrive with return envelopes saying
"Place stamp here -- the Post Office will not deliver mail without Postage."

Email has much the same caveat -- the Post Office may not be able to deliver
readable mail without correct formatting, which is a mighty small "price" --
in fact, "no postage" is the fundamental fuel for spam,
so perhaps adding even a very small bit of money to the requirement
to simply format mail correctly might drastically reduce spam,
as well as provide an incentive to make sure that overall message formatting
is also correct, not to waste that postage on mangled mail :)

--
From: Jim Thompson on 24 Nov 2009 09:10
On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:04:20 -0600, "John H Meyers"
<jhmeyers(a)nomail.invalid> wrote:

>On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:21:03 -0600, Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>[here we have diverted into discussion of QP encoding,
>having dropped discussion of UTF-8,
>which was actually what had started this thread]
>
>JHM:
>>> "Quoted Printable Encoder/Decoder"
>>> http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/plugins.htm#qp
>>> http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/qp.zip
>>>
>>> This plugin adds menu items, for manual use, to Eudora's menu
>>> Edit > Message Plug-ins
>
>Jim Thompson:
>> "manually"? but not automatically :-(
>
>"Automatically" is already built into Eudora!
>
>However, if headers do not say that a message is MIME formatted,
>and futher is supposed to be interpreted as QP, then it would be
>a mistake to go ahead anyway and "interpret" all "=20" as spaces,
>for example -- if you did that, then you would not even
>be able to see the "=xx" which I just deliberately wrote,
>but would see only a quoted space, if my message was sent
>without QP encoding, or if a plugin further decoded
>any message which was already automatically decoded by Eudora,
>such as this one (my news client has probably sent this as QP,
>even though it isn't warranted by its pure ascii content,
>without long lines)
>
>You can also get the idea by sending yourself
>a plaintext message in Eudora, with no non-ascii characters
>and no long lines, with some formula like "4*5=20"
>which would be mangled by any "always assume QP and decode it" action,
>occurring even when not justified by any indication at all.
>
>Plenty of other software is ill thought out, making assumptions
>that you can't turn off, which lead to unfortunate consequences
>and limitations, but thankfully, Brana's plugins are well thought out.
>
>The reason that some other mail readers decode QP when Eudora doesn't,
>with less risk of the type of mistake above, is that they take certain headers
>as a "strong hint" that a message is MIME formatted,
>even if no "MIME-Version: 1.0" header says so,
>whereas Eudora strictly follows the rule that such a header is required,
>though it is often missing when the main headers section gets "broken."
>
>At the present time, the "hint" assumption has a higher probability
>of being right, and thus "corrects" some malformed messages, some of the time,
>depending critically upon what other headers might also be missing,
>but Eudora is not incorrect to be based on standards, and not to attempt
>"fixing" malformed messages, which still has a chance of being wrong.
>
>It still remains a responsibility of the sender to compose valid mail,
>and not a duty of the recipient to try to diagnose and repair significant errors,
>which can take so many variant forms that it could become
>a substantial AI project to try to develop thoroughly,
>particularly not likely in a free plugin.
>
>My snail-mail bills, by the way, arrive with return envelopes saying
>"Place stamp here -- the Post Office will not deliver mail without Postage."
>
>Email has much the same caveat -- the Post Office may not be able to deliver
>readable mail without correct formatting, which is a mighty small "price" --
>in fact, "no postage" is the fundamental fuel for spam,
>so perhaps adding even a very small bit of money to the requirement
>to simply format mail correctly might drastically reduce spam,
>as well as provide an incentive to make sure that overall message formatting
>is also correct, not to waste that postage on mangled mail :)

I was thinking in terms of how to fix E-mails that will be
automatically forwarded.

Thanks, John! I'll have my son, the programming wizard, take a look
at the info you provided. Eudora filtering _can_ initiate an
executable.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
From: John H Meyers on 24 Nov 2009 09:27
On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:10:34 -0600, Jim Thompson wrote:

> I was thinking in terms of how to fix E-mails
> [having broken headers]
> that will be automatically forwarded.

Good luck trying, particularly with any whose "broken headers"
also leave undecoded text and HTML in "base64,"
or text and attachment "parts" still in-line :)

If your son succeeds, can I send you some sow's ears
(farm fresh from Iowa), to be made into silk purses? ;-)

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/you+can't+make+a+silk+purse+out+of+a+sow's+ear.html

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