FM> I think that SOT/EOT *can* only be added reliably at the author
 FM> (meaning, the software which *originated* the message) level.
 FM> And that SOT should be, at least in a certain case.

  I always knew that, but I thought Paul was adding it as well. He now
says that he is not, which makes it even more useless.

 FM> I also think that in most real-world messages you could
 FM> *correctly* add SOT and EOT, but that's not the same as
 FM> *reliably*.

  You have my understanding of the words reversed. "Corectly" means
always right. Reliably means mostly right. It's quite clear that
netmail is reliable without SOT/EOT but it is not always correct.

 FM> No, I don't at all think it's to prevent malicious anything.
 FM> It's to prevent accidents.

  I find the likelihood of typing "AREA:WHATHEHELL" at the beginning
of the first line almost vanishly small. FTS-4 defines capitals and no
space following the colon. This is *defined*... one of the few things
that are, in Fido. Of course, most mailers accept both upper and lower
case and a space or not... what the hell.

  So - we have to analyse the system as it *is*, not as Paul would
like it to be. What if mailers accept "so t" as SOT? What Paul should
do as an engineer, is put on his Devil's Advocate hat (or cloak and
horns) and see how many ways he can stuff up his creation. This is how
it's done in the real world. It's called Scientific Method and it
works.

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

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