[Fwd: I-D ACTION:draft-hall-mime-app-mbox-00.txt]

[ned.freed at mrochek.com]

> At 4:24 PM -0500 5/3/04, Eric A. Hall wrote:
> >In the meantime, take a look at ftp://ftp.ietf.org/ietf-mail-archive/ ...
> >The whole world (including the IETF) is already using mbox as the default
> >interchange format and its becoming more common.

> "The whole world" is maybe a stretch (my MTA converts them to
> multipart/digest when sending), but certainly a widespread practice
> begs to be documented.

I concur. I have no problem with registering application/mbox, but
multipart/digest usage should be encouraged. (I use multipart/digest as my
default archive format.)

> >I want them to be binary so that the EOL conversion does not occur. The
> >problems start when conversion occurs.

> I'm unconvinced that they're not used with local line conventions on
> some platforms. 

You're right to be unconvinced. I routinely use mbox format files on several
different platforms with different line termination conventions and I always
use whatever the local convension happens to be. A type that mandates LF
terminators is almost entirely useless to me.

> I happen to work on a product that does just that,
> though if I were the only one, I wouldn't worry about it much.

My usage doesn't involve your product, so you're not the only one. 

				Ned