[mso] Re: Quoted-printable (was Re: 3Ds and Ods in freelists emails)
- From: "Greg Chapman" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 22:08:17 -0600
Good catch, Linda! That's the way to use a message header!
Like Vic said, a 3D is an '=' character in hex. 0D is a Carriage Return.
The problem stems from moving data in hexadecimal noted bytes which is a
standard way of a stream that has no end of line character, or
quoted-printable.
The problem stems from the modem days. A binary file has no end of line
marker. A textstream does. An end of line character is traditionally a
Carriage Return(Hex OD or Ascii 13) or a Line Feed(Hex 0A or Ascii 13).
In the bad old days of modems, transmitting a text stream was no problem
because that end of line data is presented and transmittable. Modems
were character transmitters only. Text based systems like email,
newsgroups and list servers were no problem to transmit. However,
sending a binary file over these systems resulted in nonsensical text
files instead of binary files. They were corrupt. This is why there are
settings for File Transfer Protocol servers to allow you to tell the
system to either send in Type 0 mode (text) or Type 1 mode(binary). That
allows the server and client to agree on some binary to textstream
conversion algorithm. Once the converted stream is actually finished
with an EOF (End Of File) character, your FTP client decodes the
textstream back to binary data. Email systems have the same problem
because both of these standards were created to successfully move both
text and binary data over a 7 bit wide pipe (the modem). For text,
that's no problem. For binary, that leaves 1 bit hanging in the breeze.
After all, binary data is typically moved in bytes and a byte is 8 bits
wide. Even an ascii character is 8 bits wide but it's represented by a
character code whose trasnmission can be a value from 0 to 127 (low
ascii) or with high order ascii (characters 128-255).
Microsoft wants everybody to use RTF or HTML in their email. Both are
really sloppy ideas for messaging. HTML is a warmup for the mess that
XML will represent in your mail box and it's merely an attempt for you
to get control over message formatting and distract the reader from the
message, IMO.
RTF is a Microsoft proprietary system. It has absolutely no business in
use with messaging unless MS releases it to the world and the world
adopts it as a standard. I see no indication at www.ietf.org or
www.microsoft.com that this is going to happen any time soon.
Sue Mosher's slipstick.com site also notes this problem as a particular
with Outlook XP:
"You cannot set the default format for Internet plain text messages to
quoted-printable (which puts in soft returns, not hard returns at the
end of each line). This makes long URLs in plain text messages unusable.
Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q278134 describes how to modify the
registry to set the default encoding format for plain text messages to
quoted-printable. However, this setting appears to be only cosmetic.
While it does indeed set the Content-Transfer-Encoding to
quoted-printable, Outlook performs only partial encoding -- handling
8-bit characters, but not soft line feeds."
In other words, the standard method of deciding when to wrap a line in
Outlook is still brain bead, even if you follow the suggestions in that
KB article.
I think the primary thing the Outlook folks were trying to get a handle
on was the wrapping (and breaking) of long URLs in messages. MSKB
article
290809(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290809)
gives a pretty good description of what Outlook XP tries to do in
delivery and the limits and methods of your control. I suggest that the
key method to follow is to set your global message format preference to
Plain Text and then correct any address book entries which insist on
formatting with RTF characteristics.
There's another excellent set of explanations for the Content Transfer
Encoding mechanisms in common use at
http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/1521/5.htm. When you read up on the
Quoted Printable encoding method, it's pretty easy to see how a list
server might not succeed in parsing out all the garbage that may tag
along in that format.
Okay, I'm through.<g>
Greg Chapman
http://www.mousetrax.com
"Counting in binary is as easy as 01, 10, 11!
With thinking this clear, is coding really a good idea?"
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Linda F. Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 6:08 PM
> To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [mso] Re: Quoted-printable (was Re: 3Ds and Ods in
> freelists emails)
>
>
>
> Ok....I'll jump in here cuz I have 2002 and since this
> doesn't happen to me, I assume my settings must be ok
>
> In Tools>Options, I see two things that might be worth checking.
>
> Click on the Mail Format tab...then click on the Internet
> Mail button...I have mine set to wrap at 76 characters
>
> Now, click on the International Settings...in there both of
> my top boxes are Unchecked....Auto Select IS checked....and
> Western European (ISO) is my "preferred encoding"
>
> Is this how yours is set, Mark?
>
> However, I DO know that if I reply to someone who has these
> weird Ods and 3Ds, I will have a few of them anyway...but not
> nearly as some I see in other posts....like Errol's for
> example...one of his recent ones was LOADED...LOL...here's a
> copy/paste of what his said....see all the Ods:
>
> Content-Type: Text/Plain;
> charset="windows-1255"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> Hi Linda=0D
> The Office was nstalled on a local computer, not on the
> server.=0D Errol=0D =0D -------Original Message-------=0D =0D
> From: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx=0D
> Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 13:48:42=0D
> To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx=0D
>
> Linda
> Publisher ~ ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
> Owner ~ Linda's Computer Stop http://personal-computer-tutor.com
> FREE MS Office eBook Tutorial
> http://personal-computer-tutor.com/library.htm
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Poston
> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 6:56 PM
> To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [mso] Quoted-printable (was Re: 3Ds and Ods in
> freelists emails)
>
>
>
> On 29 Jan 2003 at 18:16, Mark Mucher wrote:
>
> > And can this be turned off?
>
> I *think* it can, but I haven't tested it yet.
>
> In Outlook 2000, Internet Mail Only, you can go to Tools | Options |
> Internet E-Mail, and set the MIME encoding to None. I've heard that
> there isn't a setting in 2002, but that 2002 chooses the
> encoding scheme
> based on how many 8-bit characters there are in the message.
> If you want
> to force one particular scheme, you have to change the
> registry. I don't
> use 2002, so I can't check for sure.
>
> I don't know what happens when you reply to a message that has QP
> encoding. Hopefully Outlook won't reply in the same mode, or
> that you
> can change encoding to "none".
>
>
> -- Jim
>
>
>
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