FM> The second thing is this "reading backwards". There's either
 FM> something more complicated about processing packets than I've
 FM> yet realised, or I'm missing the point in some other way.

  If you scan a message from the top using inc(Pchar) you have to note
the last occurrence of the Tearline and Origin, and read a whole 1500
byte message (on average). It's quicker to work backwards from the end
(the null) using dec(Pchar) to the first occurrence. The code is a lot
simpler. Everything is sequential and foolproof.

  There is no technical reason you can't read it from the top; it's
just clumsy, complicated, and inelegant. To me, that's anathema.

 FM> The difference is that ^aEOT can't occur as normal user typed
 FM> text. Three hyphens can.

  You could have written #1EOT just then... write "SE*N-BY" and see
what happens. One of your messages was decimated by that. The correct
approach is to assume that the user may type anything anywhere, and
that includes all the various kludges used in Fido.

  Paul is suggesting that we replace the Tearline with EOT. What
happens if someone types a false Tearline? Nothing. What happens if
someone types a false EOT (like I did) with an EOR-aware reader? You 
lose the Origin line. Now you don't even know the address to send 
hate mail...

  It won't people long to work out that EOT may be misused to send 
"secret messages." If I disable EOT and then put #1EOT in text, and
write my secret message in a false Tearline, all EOT-aware readers
will delete the false tearline and never see the secret message.

 BL> If we assume that an Origin line exists...
 PE> You aren't even allowed to assume that.
 FM> That is certainly a valid possible reading of that spec. I bet
 FM> most people *don't* read it that way, but it only takes one.
 FM> :-)

  So what happens with the missing Origin line? What catastrophe
follows that is worse than not having the Origin line?

  With Paul's missing EOT we can *lose* the Origin and Tear lines in 
FTS compliant messages as I've shown, and maybe half the message as
well, depending on how EOT is processed.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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