On Mon, 14 Oct 1996 tron@??? wrote:
> Since every other mail that I know of generates upper case HELO, and
> only exim (as far as I know) generates mixed case, I suggest that it
> is both expedient and more robust for exim to generate upper case HELO.
I thought PP generated mixed case, but an experiment I have just tried
shows that I was wrong.
> The basic principal (which is being violated here) is that a robust
> program should be liberal in what it accepts and conservative in what
> it generates. In other words, obstinate purity is NOT robust.
That is true, but I feel, along with Alan Barrett, that Exim *is* being
conservative, judged by reading the RFCs. In some ways it's surprising
that so many mailers send HELO in upper case, when Unix goes in for
lower case pretty well all of the time. I find this odd and unexpected
(as a latecomer to Unix from many years of MVS programming).
However, Ron is absolutely right in his view that one should aim for
robustness within the "be conservative" principle.
I yield. I will change Exim. Not without regret, however.
--
Philip Hazel University Computing Service,
ph10@??? New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
P.Hazel@??? England. Phone: +44 1223 334714
