[ale] Problem with Evolution's subject line containing apostrophe's

[Jim Popovitch]

On Wed, 2007-06-06 at 00:34 -0400, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> It would seem to be showing you the raw header without converting it
> as it should be.  MIME permits headers to be in non-ASCII encodings,
> while RFC822 and RFC2822 which govern e-mail messages overall dictate
> pure ASCII information only be present in headers and the message
> body.  MIME Part 3 (RFC2047) dictates the standards by which non-ASCII
> information can be in message headers.  The introduction says: 
>    RFC 2045 describes a mechanism for denoting textual body parts which
>    are coded in various character sets, as well as methods for encoding
>    such body parts as sequences of printable US-ASCII characters.  This
>    memo describes similar techniques to allow the encoding of non-ASCII
>    text in various portions of a RFC 822 [2] message header, in a manner
>    which is unlikely to confuse existing message handling software.
> The standard itself then goes on to talk about "encoded words" which
> are used in headers which use non-ASCII character sets: 
>    ... certain sequences of "ordinary" printable ASCII characters
>    (known as "encoded-words") are reserved for use as encoded data.  The
>    syntax of encoded-words is such that they are unlikely to
>    "accidentally" appear as normal text in message headers.
>    Furthermore, the characters used in encoded-words are restricted to
>    those which do not have special meanings in the context in which the
>    encoded-word appears.
> 
>    Generally, an "encoded-word" is a sequence of printable ASCII
>    characters that begins with "=?", ends with "?=", and has two "?"s in
>    between.  It specifies a character set and an encoding method, and
>    also includes the original text encoded as graphic ASCII characters,
>    according to the rules for that encoding method.
> 
>    A mail composer that implements this specification will provide a
>    means of inputting non-ASCII text in header fields, but will
>    translate these fields (or appropriate portions of these fields) into
>    encoded-words before inserting them into the message header.
> 
>    A mail reader that implements this specification will recognize
>    encoded-words when they appear in certain portions of the message
>    header.  Instead of displaying the encoded-word "as is", it will
>    reverse the encoding and display the original text in the designated
>    character set.
> So, what you're seeing in that message header is a non-ASCII
> (RFC2047-compliant) message header encoded such that it is compliant
> with the requirements specified in RFC(2)822.  Evolution should be
> converting the Windows code page 1252 text into UTF-8/Unicode which is
> used internally and then display the message with the header already
> converted, but it doesn't appear to be doing that.  Since Evolution
> claims to support MIME, I should think that this is a bug and that
> perhaps a bug should be filed demanding compliance with RFC2047.
> 
> The full-text of RFC2047 can be found at the following location:
> http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047.html

Dude you rock!  I take back everything I ever said about you using HTML
email.  :-)  I can't imagine how you came up with the info above, but
your insight and explanation are much appreciated.  Thanks!

-Jim P.