Re: Message/Mail Mode and UTF-8

[Tim X]

Chris Yocum <cyocum@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2010-04-15, Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null> wrote:
>> Chris Yocum <cyocum@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> While I have used emacs for a while as a text editor, etc.  I am now
>>> using VM 8.1.0 in emacs to compose and send mail as well.  I noticed
>>> that when I composed mail in either Message or Mail Mode that the MIME
>>> attributes stated that I was sending a charset of us-ascii and I would
>>> really like to send my mails with utf-8 set as the character set.
>>> Does anyone know the magic incantation to get Mail/Message Mode to do
>>> that?  I am using EMACS 23.1.1 on amd64 Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).
>>> Thank you all very much in advance.
>>>
>>
>> I'm not sure that is a good idea. From memory, the RFCs for mail specify
>> messages should be 7 or possibly 8 bit. If you must use UTF-8, you
>> probably have to set things up to send as MIME. Most mail servers will
>> probalby handle UTF-8 fine, its the occasional one that doesn't which
>> will cause things to go weird.
>>
>
> I primarily use Google's gmail smtp so I am pretty sure it will be
> alright.  If I run into problems, I can just fall back to the default.
>
Its been some years since I had to run and configure mail servers, so my
knowledge could well be outdated. However, thge issue isn't with your
SMTP server, but rather the various SMTP servers your mail may travel
through on its route to the destination address your sending mail to.
Keep in mind that you have no control or even knowledge regarding what
SMTP servers are involved in the delivery of messages you send. This is
one reason why mail is considered to be a very insecure mode of
communication. You may know and trust the SMTP server you use and you
may even know and trust the SMTP server of the recipient, but you have
know way of knowing for certain what other servers and networks that
message may pass through on its route to the recipient. Unfortunately,
there are almost as many badly configured mail servers out there as
badly configured Domain Name Servers. This is why I think it is best to
stick to the lowest common denominator, which in the case of mail is
using 7bit ASCII and if you must use characters that cannot be
represented in basic ASCII, use MIME encoding. 

Tim


-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au