usefor-article-03 February 2000
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4.3.1. Body Format Issues
The body of an article MAY be empty, although posting agents SHOULD
consider this an error condition (meriting returning the article to
the poster for revision). A posting or injecting agent which does not
reject such an article SHOULD issue a warning message to the poster
and supply a non-empty body. Note that the separator line MUST be
present even if the body is empty.
NOTE: Some existing news software is known to react badly to
body-less articles, hence the request for posting and injecting
agents to insert a body in such cases. The sentence "This
article was probably generated by a buggy news reader" has
traditionally been used is this situation.
Note that an article body is a sequence of lines terminated by CRLFs,
not arbitrary binary data, and in particular it MUST end with a CRLF.
However, relaying agents SHOULD treat the body of an article as an
uninterpreted sequence of octets (except as mandated by changes of
CRLF representation and by control-message processing) and SHOULD
avoid imposing constraints on it. See also section 4.5.
Posters SHOULD avoid using control characters in US-ASCII (or other
CCSs) except for tab (ASCII 9), formfeed (ASCII 12), and backspace
(ASCII 8). Tab signifies sufficient horizontal white space to reach
the next of a set of fixed positions; posters are warned that there
is no standard set of positions, so tabs should be avoided if precise
spacing is essential. Formfeed (which is sometimes referred to as the
"spoiler character") signifies a point at which a reading agent
SHOULD pause and await reader interaction before displaying further
text. Backspace SHOULD be used only for underlining, done by a
sequence of underscores (ASCII 95) followed by an equal number of
backspaces, signifying that the same number of text characters
following are to be underlined. Posters are warned that underlining
is not available on all output devices and is best not relied on for
essential meaning. Reading agents SHOULD recognize underlining and
translate it to the appropriate commands for devices that support it.
Reading agents MUST NOT pass other control characters or escape
sequences unaltered to the output device.
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#Diff to first older
--- ../s-o-1036/Body_Format_Issues.out June 1994
+++ ../usefor-article-03/Body_Format_Issues.out February 2000
@@ -1,47 +1,39 @@
4.3.1. Body Format Issues
-The body of an article MAY be empty, although posting agents
-SHOULD consider this an error condition (meriting returning
-the article to the poster for revision). A posting agent
-which does not reject such an article SHOULD issue a warning
-message to the poster and supply a non-empty body. Note
-that the separator line MUST be present even if the body is
-empty.
-
- NOTE: An empty body is probably a poster error
- except, arguably, for some control messages... and
- even they really ought to have a body explaining
- the reason for the control message. Some old
- reading agents are known to generate empty bodies
- for "cancel" control messages, so posting agents
- might opt not to reject body-less articles in such
- cases (although it would be better to fix the
- reading agents to request a body). However, some
- existing news software is known to react badly to
- body-less articles, hence the request for posting
- agents to insert a body in such cases.
-
-INTERNET DRAFT to be NEWS sec. 4.3.1
-
-
- NOTE: A possible posting-agent-supplied body text
- (already used by one widespread posting agent) is
- "This article was probably generated by a buggy
- news reader.". (The use of "reader" to refer to
- the reading agent is traditional, although this
- Draft uses more precise terminology.)
-
- NOTE: The requirement for the separator line even
- in a bodyless article is inherited from MAIL, and
- also distinguishes legitimately-bodyless articles
- from articles accidentally truncated in the middle
- of the headers.
-
-Note that an article body is a sequence of lines terminated
-by EOLs, not arbitrary binary data, and in particular it
-MUST end with an EOL. However, relayers SHOULD treat the
-body of an article as an uninterpreted sequence of octets
-(except as mandated by changes of EOL representation and by
-control-message processing) and SHOULD avoid imposing con-
-straints on it. See also section 4.6.
+ The body of an article MAY be empty, although posting agents SHOULD
+ consider this an error condition (meriting returning the article to
+ the poster for revision). A posting or injecting agent which does not
+ reject such an article SHOULD issue a warning message to the poster
+ and supply a non-empty body. Note that the separator line MUST be
+ present even if the body is empty.
+
+ NOTE: Some existing news software is known to react badly to
+ body-less articles, hence the request for posting and injecting
+ agents to insert a body in such cases. The sentence "This
+ article was probably generated by a buggy news reader" has
+ traditionally been used is this situation.
+ Note that an article body is a sequence of lines terminated by CRLFs,
+ not arbitrary binary data, and in particular it MUST end with a CRLF.
+ However, relaying agents SHOULD treat the body of an article as an
+ uninterpreted sequence of octets (except as mandated by changes of
+ CRLF representation and by control-message processing) and SHOULD
+ avoid imposing constraints on it. See also section 4.5.
+
+ Posters SHOULD avoid using control characters in US-ASCII (or other
+ CCSs) except for tab (ASCII 9), formfeed (ASCII 12), and backspace
+ (ASCII 8). Tab signifies sufficient horizontal white space to reach
+ the next of a set of fixed positions; posters are warned that there
+ is no standard set of positions, so tabs should be avoided if precise
+ spacing is essential. Formfeed (which is sometimes referred to as the
+ "spoiler character") signifies a point at which a reading agent
+ SHOULD pause and await reader interaction before displaying further
+ text. Backspace SHOULD be used only for underlining, done by a
+ sequence of underscores (ASCII 95) followed by an equal number of
+ backspaces, signifying that the same number of text characters
+ following are to be underlined. Posters are warned that underlining
+ is not available on all output devices and is best not relied on for
+ essential meaning. Reading agents SHOULD recognize underlining and
+ translate it to the appropriate commands for devices that support it.
+ Reading agents MUST NOT pass other control characters or escape
+ sequences unaltered to the output device.