[ale] Oops. I was slightly wrong. (was: Re: Problem with Evolution's subject line containing apostrophe's)

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 2007-06-05 at 19:24 -0400, Jim Popovitch wrote:

> Every now and then I get emails that contain Subjects that look like
> this: 
> 
> E360=?windows-1252?Q?=92s_Linhardt:_Hacker_Sent__Porn_to_Client=92s?=Database
> 
> The original email (from SPAM-L) has this Subject:
> 
> E360?s Linhardt: Hacker Sent Porn to Client?s Database
> 
> Evolution seems to not properly handle the apostrophes and tries to
> convert them... that or there is some language issue.
> 
> Any ideas on what could cause this? 


I just came across something else in reading this RFC further (I am
currently attempting to implement the various RFCs completely in a class
library, which is why I am digging into them so much at the moment).  It
says: 

   A mail reader need not attempt to display the text associated with an
   'encoded-word' that is incorrectly formed.  However, a mail reader
   MUST NOT prevent the display or handling of a message because an
   'encoded-word' is incorrectly formed.

It also says that the quoted word MUST be surrounded by whitespace.
Apparently, this message header breaks that rule; it should be written
as one of the following:

=?windows-1252?Q?E360=92s_Linhardt:_Hacker_Sent__Porn_to_Client=92s_Database?=
=?windows-1252?Q?E360=92s_Linhardt:_Hacker_Sent__Porn_to_Client=92s?=
Database
=?windows-1252?Q?E360=92s=20Linhardt:=20Hacker=20Sent=20=20Porn=20to=20Client=92s=20Database?=
=?windows-1252?Q?E360=92s=20Linhardt:=20Hacker=20Sent=20=20Porn=20to=20Client=92s?= Database

Which means that neither SPAM-L nor Evolution are breaking the standard;
the mailer broke the standard, SPAM-L chose to attempt to repair the
header and Evolution (as permitted by the standard) did not make the
attempt.

In order to attempt to see if Evolution deals with properly formed
headers, I sent myself a message with (sorry, many UTF-8 characters
coming) the header:

Testing UTF-8 Headers: ???????????????????????????????

The message's header line displayed correctly in Evolution both in the
preview pane and the message list, and the source shows:

Subject: Testing UTF-8 Headers:
        =?UTF-8?Q?=C2=AB=C2=A9=C2=AE=C3=A6=C3=86=C2=B0=C2=B6=C3=9F=C2=A7=C3=A7?=
        =?UTF-8?Q?=C3=B1=C3=A1=C3=A9=C3=AD=C3=B3=C3=BA=C2=A1=C2=B2=C2=B3=C2=A4?=

=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=82=AC=C2=BC=C2=A3=C2=BD=C2=BE=E2=80=98=E2=80=99=C2=A5?=

Which means that I was hasty and incorrect when I said that Evolution
didn't appear to support the standard and that it was a bug.  :-(  I
apologize for that.  My guess is that Evolution does not attempt to fix
up broken encoded words to avoid guesswork and crashing.  It's unstable
enough some days as it is, so I suppose this is probably a good thing.

As you can see here, Evolution is capable of creating (and parsing)
compliant headers just fine.  Sorry for not having all the information
the first time around.

    ? Mike

--
Michael B. Trausch
           michael.trausch at gmail.com
Phone: (404) 592-5746
                          Jabber IM:
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Demand Freedom!  Use open and free protocols, standards, and software!
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