[net.mail.headers] problem with WISCVM gateway

Bruce Hamilton <Hamilton.ES@XEROX.ARPA> (02/08/85)

[Sorry if this has been thrashed out already on HEADER-PEOPLE; I'm not
on that list.]

For what it's worth, the "Date" field in your msg:

Subject: European Internal Networks
Date:    850208.082825 GMT

in your header probably does not meet any of the various ARPAnet
RFC822-acceptable formats, because my mail program can't handle it.  Is
there somebody at WISCVM who can upgrade their gateway software from
BITNET to munge the date properly?

--Bruce

Ron Natalie <ron@BRL-TGR.ARPA> (02/10/85)

Various ARPAnet format?

There is only 1.

Murray.pa@XEROX.ARPA (02/10/85)

There may be only one date format in the specs, but reality is a lot
different.

When our header munger encounters a header that it can't parse, it can
send me a message including a copy of the pesky header. Occasionally
it's a bug in the parser. Normally it's a mail generating program that
doesn't play by the rules. Crazy dates are quite common, and this is
after our parser has been patched to know about the common illegal
formats.

I'll collect some samples if you want any data. (I'll even unpatch the
parser if you want a lot of data.)

And if you think there is a standard for dates.... I'm still amazed at
the number of messages that come through with "at" where there should be
an "@".