Re: Strict SMTP (RFC-821) compliance or not ?

[Nicholas_Briggs.PARC@xerox.com]

Of course you shouldn't accept things when it is necessary to have them
correct, and you can't fix them.  But... if it's a trivial item, then there's
probably something you can do about it, even if it isn't guaranteed to be what
was intended:  at least it's valid to pass on.   Here's one of the typical
examples I see:

Error in "Message-Id" header address:
<"MGJD-5822-7580/00"*/PN=HY.YARCHUN/O=LEARNTREE/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com>
                            ^-illegal end of message identification


And in Matti's case, he's going to have to deal with a user who can't send mail
any more and has no control over the implementor of the Mac mailer who isn't
following the RFC [yes, they should take their business elsewhere, but there
may not be a choice which DOES comply, or is acceptable in other ways].

Re "I rarely have any idea what the immediately obvious behavior is
supposed to be:-)"     You have my sympathy.  :-)   It usually isn't obvious,
and takes a little work to figure out what the correct thing to do is, and it's
not always the same in different venues for the same error.   The system should
be flexible enough to allow it to be customized in the handling of incorrect
input as well as correct input.

						\nick