On Thu, 1 Aug 1996 16:35:25 -0400 Chris Bartram said:
> In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>> You may want to check with your cc:Mail admin (if not yourself :) ) or
>> with Lotus - we use cc:Mail and can receive both MIME- and uuencoded
>> documents.
>
>This is a function of the capability of the SMTP gateway in use. If you're
>using the Lotus cc:Mail SMTP gateway, it doesn't understand MIME (unless
>they've just started shipping a new version). Don't feel too bad though,
>Microsoft's SMTP gateway for MSMail also doesn't understand MIME.
 
You hit the nail on the head there, Chris, but you need to hit it again :-)
The "big name" mailers which incorporate *any* form of SMTP are notoriously
horrible (speaking from the trenches).  They might look good if you use them
enterprise-wide because they darn well should be able to talk to each other,
but when you export/import mail to different messaging systems they tend to
favor simply "encapsulating" their messages inside SMTP protocol and expect
the receiving system to be -- guess what -- another mailer of their brand.
 
Few mail systems implement the most fundamental RFC-822 message addressing
formats, let alone the RFC-721(?) SMTP transport protocol; these are nearly
two decades old and widely established (sendmail for example).  MIME is the
least common denominator to extending "open" mail (and I don't mean OpenMail).
 
>Even the "proprietary" HP3000 has had MIME capability (via a third party
>which I won't name! ;-) ) since about 1993.
 
And you no doubt recall how much I bitched at this unnamed third party until
it worked right, RFCs and all :-)
 
Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>