[Info-vax] bizarre SMTP problem

[sapienzaf]

On Apr 9, 6:02 pm, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
remove CLOTHES to reply) wrote:
> Not completely, since "@" anywhere but at the beginning is NOT parsed as
> in DCL.

<sigh>  Clearly you're as eager as Bob Eager to jump without
understanding the context.

Look folks, it's really quite simple.  Go back and read up on the CLI
utility routines.  The '+' is used to seperate parameters.  It's
documented.  The calling application processes each parameter in
turn.  It's clear that Mail is just using the CLI routines and saying
"give me the first value in the list of parameters", then "give me the
next value in the list of parameters", etcetera.

Since CLI is in charge of initial parsing of the "To:" line, Mail
never has a chance to determine whether the '+' should be interpreted
as part of the SMTP address or as a parameter seperator.

In foo.bla+mumble at domain.com the CLI routines will return "foo.bla" as
the first parameter in the list and "mumble at domain.com" as the second
parameter.  Case closed.  That's the documented way in which CLI
interprets the input line.

Furthermore, as I pointed out earlier, there's an ambiguity.  If
there's no explicit use of the SMTP% prefix, then the presence of the
'+' can be interpreted as EITHER a parameter seperator or part of an
SMTP address.  Some of you think the presence of the '@' other than in
the first character position should change CLIs parsing rules.  Yet,
CLI isn't the application (Mail is) and Mail can't change CLI's rules.

The way to get rid of the ambiguity is to be explicit by using the SMTP
% prefix followed by a quoted string containing the SMTP address.