Re: A (possibly) better way to get input integrity
der Mouse (mouse@Collatz.McRCIM.McGill.EDU)
Sun, 26 Feb 1995 08:07:51 -0500
> Since when do we have email addresses with `|;{(*&'?, return and
> newline in them? For that matter, why should we allow for inputs
> with 8-bit bytes, ^D, ^Z, or other control, meta, or escape
> characters. These are not legitimate email address components and
> should not be permitted for this purpose.
I disagree about some of those. High-half characters (128-255), which
is presumably what you mean by "8-bit bytes", are necessary if you are
to be taken seriously outside the USA. Not everyone finds ASCII
sufficient, y'know. *I* certainly am not about to be the one to tell
some French postmaster sie can't set up a mail alias "inou∩" just
because someone on the other side of the pond decided character 0xef
(Latin-1 i-diaeresis) was somehow less safe than character 0x69
(Latin-1, and ASCII, i).
A good case could be made for permitting escape, when followed by the
magic sequences to shift into or out of kanji, for Japanese. (I don't
recall what that sequence is, and it doesn't really matter.)
I would prefer to allow newline and return and other such characters,
but simply process them more carefully. For example, redesign the qf*
file format so that newlines in strings don't confuse it. (To be done
completely right, mail spool files also need to be redesigned. It may
actually be more of a headache than it's worth.)
der Mouse
mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu