[leafnode-list] Re: Base64 coding in list messages

[Whiskers]

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:45:29 +0200 Matthias Andree
<matthias.andree at gmx.de> wrote:
> Whiskers <catwheezel at operamail.com> writes:

[...]

> > When it left me, the message had these headers:
> >
> >     Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> >     Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> >
> > but on arrival from the mailing-list, these had changed to:
> >
> >     Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >     Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

[...]

> Generally speaking, quoted-printable or base64 will usually happen
> whenever umlauts are involved - or other characters that don't fit into
> 7bit (I'm avoiding them in this message). In the message you sent it was
> the German oe umlaut in the greeting that you had quoted from Torsten's
> message.

But it only happens occasionally even in that case; Torsten's messages 
don't get converted to Base64 - but in that thread, both Peter J Ross's 
reply and mine, did.

Torsten's messages get to me with

    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

so perhaps it isn't the actual characters, so much as the sender's 
character set - I used UTF-8 (automatic setting by my software when I use 
non-US-ASCII characters); perhaps Peter did too?  If the messages go 
through a system that can't handle UTF-8 I can see that causing a problem.

> I stand by my former point that the problem is with the interaction of
> Operamail and FreePOP. The latter fetches the header and the decoded
> body, but does not rewrite the Content-Transfer-Encoding from "base64"
> to either "8bit" or "binary".  

It's just as reasonable to suggest that Claws-Mail should be able to react 
better when the body doesn't match the coding claimed in the headers.  

> Since you said switching service were no
> option for you, it's probably best to have FreePOP fixed.

I can submit suggestions or reports to the maintainers of both FreePOPs
and Claws-Mail, but it's beyond me to actually re-write those tools
myself.

I have in fact migrated my subscription to this list to a new free email 
account with GMX's new 'beta testing' service , which includes POP and IMAP
access, so the immediate difficulty for me should be solved.  But the 
curious changing of the encoding of messages remains.

> HTH

Thank you for your interest  :))

-- 
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
--  Whiskers 
-- ~~~~~~~~~~