LE> "Handled" in this context  essentially means "we
know it's wrong,
 LE> but write your software to accept it anyway". In other words, it's
 LE> considered necessary to accept messages with this error for the
 LE> sake of proper network operation.

 LE> Also note that if you get a message with ^AAREA:, it will have to
 LE> leave your system with that fixed. :-)

i can't believe that you are advocating fixing someone else's bugs. :-(

 LE> I think that's reasonable behavior. We can identify the error
 LE> *and* there's no ambiguity about what was *meant* so it is
 LE> better to correct the message than to throw it away. Sending
 LE> an error report back to the originator is optional. :-)

my understanding is that we are supposed to pass messages on, unmodified
other than what's needed for proper network operation. this has been
generally interpreted as adding info to the seenby and path lines and
really nothing more than that.

to send a message that arrives with ^aAREA: on to another site with the ^a
removed would be going against this, wouldn't it?

i think that an error report back to the originator would be
"required" so that they could fix it or at least notify the
author that he interpreted the spec incorrectly and that it should be
fixed.

)\/(ark