RE: base64

["Rainer Gerhards" <rgerhards () hq adiscon com>]

> > Do all this canonicalization before the message hits your 
> attachment 
> > type policy enforcement and malware scanner, so they only 
> have to deal 
> > with the common forms that everybody handles the same.
>
> With the obvious disadvantage that we're all reduced to using 
> the lowest-common-subset of functionality.  Never mind 
> inventing or supporting new features, or adding international 
> file naming support, in your new email client, because the 
> mail server will strip all of that out, anyway.  I don't 
> think that's an appropriate answer.

I think it is. Traditionally, newer RFCs *extend* existing ones - they
do not break there formats. So properly engineered new functionality
will either a) live within the boundary of an existing protocol or b)
specifiy a new one. In the case of a) canonocalication will do no harm,
in the case of b) it will not be applied as this is a separate protocol.

Rainer