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Does MIME garble messages?

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Steve

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Oct 17, 2002, 12:41:24 PM10/17/02
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Recently had some problems posting to a mailing list - apostrophes
came thru as =92T, etc. Finally fixed it by unchecking the "use MIME
features" box. That's the first time I've had this sort of problem -
what's the downside of leaving the box unchecked by default? Thanks!

Fred Viles

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Oct 17, 2002, 7:01:23 PM10/17/02
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Steve <st...@DeleteThis.advocate.net> wrote in
news:eoptqu46asa83pkoe...@4ax.com:

> Recently had some problems posting to a mailing list -
> apostrophes came thru as =92T, etc.

I don't know about the "etc", but whatever character you are
calling "appostrophe" is non-ASCII. "=92" is a representation of
the character with the hex value 0x92 in Quoted-printable encoding.

Unless you check the box "Allow 8-bit MIME message encoding",
Pegasus Mail uses QP encoding any time your message contains 8-bit
characters so that the message as sent is 7-bit clean.

That should be fine, however. The mailing list must be stripping
off the MIME headers from your message.

> Finally fixed it by
> unchecking the "use MIME features" box. That's the first time
> I've had this sort of problem - what's the downside of leaving
> the box unchecked by default?

To numerous to list. FWIW, I have been lobbying to have the option
removed so people can't hurt themselves with it. You can try
enabling 8-bit data and see what your mailing list does with it,
but a better solution would be to simply not include non-ASCII
characters in your message. Use single-quote (') or back-quote (`)
instead of appostrophe.

- Fred

Steve

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Oct 18, 2002, 12:00:00 PM10/18/02
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Fred Viles <fv+a...@nospam.epitools.com> wrote:
>Unless you check the box "Allow 8-bit MIME message encoding",
>Pegasus Mail uses QP encoding any time your message contains 8-bit
>characters so that the message as sent is 7-bit clean.
>That should be fine, however. The mailing list must be stripping
>off the MIME headers from your message.

Is that common? I've used several mail lists in the past, and never
had this problem. If I first copy/paste into Notepad, then copy/paste
into Pegasus, will that strip the non-ASCII characters?

Robert

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Oct 18, 2002, 12:07:06 PM10/18/02
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It won't help. Non-ASCII is not a problem, it's the upper-ASCII.

Check the 8-bit option, that will do the trick.


Steve

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Oct 18, 2002, 7:18:19 PM10/18/02
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"Robert" <mmKKaarrtta...@wp.pl> wrote:
>Check the 8-bit option, that will do the trick.

The help file sounds pretty scary on the 8-bit option: "This is both
a very technical, and potentially very dangerous option and should
only be used if you know what you are doing. We recommend you do not
check this control except on the advice of a properly qualified
person."

Robert

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Oct 19, 2002, 1:48:07 AM10/19/02
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I know. Just don't let yourself be intimidated.
This warning belongs in the previous century.
I've been using 8-bit for many years without a single problem.


gregor herrmann

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Oct 19, 2002, 6:33:28 AM10/19/02
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On Sat, 19 Oct 2002 07:48:07 +0200, Robert wrote:

> > The help file sounds pretty scary on the 8-bit option: [..]


> I know. Just don't let yourself be intimidated.
> This warning belongs in the previous century.
> I've been using 8-bit for many years without a single problem.

same here.

gregor
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Daniel R. Tobias

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Oct 19, 2002, 9:36:10 PM10/19/02
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Fred Viles <fv+a...@nospam.epitools.com> wrote in message news:<Xns92AAA2F...@66.150.105.45>...

> To numerous to list. FWIW, I have been lobbying to have the option
> removed so people can't hurt themselves with it. You can try
> enabling 8-bit data and see what your mailing list does with it,
> but a better solution would be to simply not include non-ASCII
> characters in your message. Use single-quote (') or back-quote (`)
> instead of appostrophe.

It sounds like he's using the nonstandard Microsoftism characters
instead of standard ASCII apostrophes; perhaps he's pasting the
message text in from another program? Anyway, your advice here is
sensible; whether or not he sets the "Use 8 bit" option, it's invalid
to use characters that aren't part of the standard character set.

--
Dan

Steve

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Oct 20, 2002, 1:16:12 PM10/20/02
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d...@tobias.name (Daniel R. Tobias) wrote:
>It sounds like he's using the nonstandard Microsoftism characters
>instead of standard ASCII apostrophes; perhaps he's pasting the
>message text in from another program?

Yep, most of these are from news sites. I first cut/paste from
Explorer to Notepad, then again from Notepad to Pegasus. At that
point, all the punctuation characters look like standard ASCII. Is
there a Word macro or something I should run to strip out any
non-ASCII characters before emailing?

Fred Viles

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Oct 21, 2002, 2:27:36 AM10/21/02
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"Robert" <mmKKaarrtta...@wp.pl> wrote in
news:aopbjg$h5s$1...@topaz.icpnet.pl:

> In news:4vb0ru0k42ugs8kig...@4ax.com, Steve wrote:
>> Fred Viles <fv+a...@nospam.epitools.com> wrote:
>> > Unless you check the box "Allow 8-bit MIME message encoding",
>> > Pegasus Mail uses QP encoding any time your message contains 8-bit
>> > characters so that the message as sent is 7-bit clean.
>> > That should be fine, however. The mailing list must be stripping
>> > off the MIME headers from your message.
>>
>> Is that common?

No, I don't think it is these days. But it's not unheard of.

>> I've used several mail lists in the past, and never
>> had this problem. If I first copy/paste into Notepad, then copy/paste
>> into Pegasus, will that strip the non-ASCII characters?
> It won't help. Non-ASCII is not a problem, it's the upper-ASCII.

Sorry to be pedantic, but there's no such thing as "upper-ASCII". ASCII
defines 128 characters with values from 0-127, and that's it. Any
character having a value of 128 or higher is non-ASCII, by definition.

- Fred

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