Re: [EAI] double angle brackets

[SM <sm at resistor.net>]

At 14:46 04-09-2009, Ernie Dainow wrote:
> One of the key goals in simplifying Downgrade is to drop the double 
> angle bracket notation, due to compatibility and security concerns. 
> There have been a few email threads on this. I think the following 
> summarizes the current thinking.

Yes.

At 04:58 06-09-2009, Charles Lindsey wrote:
> If we retain the double angle brackets, then one could still say, in the
> Reply-To, "please reply to my utf-8 address if possible, but if your
> system (or some intermediate server that knows how to downgrade) can't do
> that, then please reply to my ascii address".
>
> I would expect that to be the commonest (and most useful) situation in
> which those double angle brackets will appear in practice.

Ernie summarizes what may be considered in my opinion as easier, i.e. 
lower amount of changes to existing syntax.

> So my preference would be to retain them, at least so long as these remain
> Experimental documents. If the eventual Standard still retains them, then
> it could still say "this feature may well be withdrawn in a future version
> of this standard" (with the intent to do so when utf-8 has become so
> widely implemented that it is no longer needed).

If the decision is taken to retain them in an existing Proposed 
Standard, it will be more difficult to withdraw that feature even 
though there is a statement about it.

Regards,
-sm