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| <article class="doc"> |
| <h1 class="page">Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions</h1> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_overview"><a class="anchor" href="#_overview"></a>Overview</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>The base format of an email message is <a href="imf.html" class="page">Internet Message Format"</a>, |
| but most contemporary messages use a format called |
| <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME">"Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions"</a>. |
| MIME specifies how to extend a valid IMF message, dealing with character encodings, |
| various file formats, and many other odds and ends that make email what it is today.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>A user of email rarely has to be concerned with the MIME specifications. Usually the |
| communications system should take care of all the nitty gritty, and even then MIME |
| processing is usually at a very low level. For this reason, the blissfully simple |
| conception of a simple "email" is usually just fine from the perspective of a user |
| and even in most cases for a developer.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_specifications"><a class="anchor" href="#_specifications"></a>Specifications</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, or just MIME, functions much like an extension |
| to IMF in order to:</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="ulist"> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>Add different character sets for internationalization</p> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <p>Allow for processing of media types other than plain text</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2045"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2045"></a>RFC2045</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045">RFC2045</a> ("Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies") |
| describes the message body format of an email. It is part of a serious of MIME |
| specifications including <a href="#_rfc2046">RFC2046</a>, <a href="#_rfc2047">RFC2047</a>, <a href="#_rfc2048">RFC2048</a>, and <a href="#_rfc2049">RFC2049</a>. |
| This particular document in the series specifies the various headers that |
| are used to describe the structure of a MIME message.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2046"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2046"></a>RFC2046</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046">RFC2046</a> ("Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| Part Two: Media Types") describes the various MIME media types, such as |
| plain text, images, videos, etc. It is part of the serious of MIME specifications |
| that includes <a href="#_rfc2045">RFC2045</a>, <a href="#_rfc2047">RFC2047</a>, <a href="#_rfc2048">RFC2048</a>, and <a href="#_rfc2049">RFC2049</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2047"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2047"></a>RFC2047</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2047">RFC2047</a> ("MIME Part Three: |
| Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text") describes, as the |
| title indicates, header extensions for non-ASCII text. It is part |
| of the series of MIME specifications that includes |
| <a href="#_rfc2045">RFC2045</a>, <a href="#_rfc2046">RFC2046</a>, <a href="#_rfc2048">RFC2048</a>, and <a href="#_rfc2049">RFC2049</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2048"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2048"></a>RFC2048</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2048">RFC2048</a> ("Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| Part Four: Registration Procedures") describes the procedure for registering a MIME |
| type. It is not directly relevant to James, but is part of the MIME series that includes |
| <a href="#_rfc2045">RFC2045</a>, <a href="#_rfc2046">RFC2046</a>, <a href="#_rfc2047">RFC2047</a>, and <a href="#_rfc2049">RFC2049</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>This specification was obsoleted by <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4288">RFC4288</a> |
| (which itself was obsoleted by <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6838">RFC6838</a>) and |
| <a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4289">RFC4289</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect2"> |
| <h3 id="_rfc2049"><a class="anchor" href="#_rfc2049"></a>RFC2049</h3> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p><a href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2049">RFC2049</a> ("Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples") mainly describes what portions of MIME |
| must be supported by a conformant MIME implementation. It is part of the series that includes |
| <a href="#_rfc2045">RFC2045</a>, <a href="#_rfc2046">RFC2046</a>, <a href="#_rfc2047">RFC2047</a>, and <a href="#_rfc2049">RFC2049</a>.</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="sect1"> |
| <h2 id="_james_model"><a class="anchor" href="#_james_model"></a>James Model</h2> |
| <div class="sectionbody"> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>While a general, non-technical description of MIME is useful for most users |
| and developers, it is not sufficient for building a complex system like James. Meanwhile, |
| the technical specifications are unfortunately very messy and overly-complex due to |
| their history and the context in which they were developed. To make dealing with |
| emails possible and practical, James has defined its own version of what it means |
| to be an email.</p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="paragraph"> |
| <p>(TODO need a reference, please!)</p> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
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