Re: Content-length header (was Re: request for new forms...)

Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com>

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Subject: Re: Content-length header (was Re: request for new forms...) 
In-Reply-To: Your message of Tue, 12 Oct 93 14:03:28 EDT.
Errors-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Reply-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Organization: Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 13:18:00 -0500
From: Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com>

> I know HTTP isn't SMTP, but I feel compelled to point out that the
> Content-Length header is not blessed by any standard.
It is in the HTTP standard, which explictly requires a full "BINARY"
transport system.  Mail based transports will have to encode/decode
BASE64 on either end.

> In fact, there is no
> definition.  The MIME working group explicitly decided NOT to include such a
> header in MIME, because it could not be made to work correctly over the
> variety of mail transports in existance.
That's a stupid reason (restrict the software because current systems are
broken), but it still doesn't affect HTTP.

--sanders