usefor-article-03 February 2000

6.15.  Lines

   The Lines header indicates the number of lines in the body of the
   article.

      Lines-content       = [CFWS] 1*digit

   The line count includes all body lines, including the signature if
   any, including empty lines (if any) at the beginning or end of the
   body, and including the whole of all Mime message and multipart parts
   contained in the body (the single empty separator line between the
   headers and the body is not part of the body). The "body" here is the
   body as found in the posted article as transmitted by the posting
   agent.

   This header is to be regarded as obsolete, and it will likely be
   removed entirely in a future version of this standard. In the
   meantime, its use is deprecated.

--- ../s-o-1036/Lines.out          June 1994
+++ ../usefor-article-03/Lines.out          February 2000
@@ -1,51 +1,19 @@
-6.11. Lines
+6.15.  Lines
 
-The Lines header content indicates the number  of  lines  in
-the body of the article:
+   The Lines header indicates the number of lines in the body of the
+   article.
 
-     Lines-content = 1*digit
+      Lines-content       = [CFWS] 1*digit
 
-The line count includes all body lines, including the signa-
-ture if any, including empty lines (if any) at beginning  or
-end  of  the body.  (The single empty separator line between
-the headers and the body is not  part  of  the  body.)   The
-"body"  here  is  the  body  as found in the posted article,
-AFTER all transformations such as MIME encodings.
-
-Reading agents SHOULD not  rely  on  the  presence  of  this
-header, since it is optional (and some posting agents do not
-supply it).  They MUST not rely on it being  precise,  since
-it frequently is not.
-
-     NOTE: The average line length in article bodies is
-     surprisingly consistent at  about  40  characters,
-     and  since  the  line count typically is used only
-     for approximate judgements ("is this too  long  to
-
-INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                   sec. 6.11
-
-
-     read  quickly?"),  dividing  the byte count of the
-     body by 40 gives an  estimate  of  the  body  line
-     count that is adequate for normal use.  This esti-
-     mate is NOT adequate if the  body  has  been  MIME
-     encoded...  but neither is the Lines header, since
-     at least one major relayer  will  supply  a  Lines
-     header for an article that lacks one, and will not
-     consider the possibility of  MIME  encodings  when
-     computing the line count.
-
-     NOTE:  It  would  be better to have a Content-Size
-     header as part of MIME, so that body  parts  could
-     have  their  own sizes, and so that the units used
-     could be appropriate to the data type (line  count
-     is  not a useful measure of the size of an encoded
-     image, for example).  Doing this is preferable  to
-     trying to fix Lines.
-
-     UNRESOLVED ISSUE: Update on Content-Size?
-
-Relayers  SHOULD  discard this header if they find it neces-
-sary to re-encode the article in such a way that the  origi-
-nal Lines header would be rendered incorrect.
+   The line count includes all body lines, including the signature if
+   any, including empty lines (if any) at the beginning or end of the
+   body, and including the whole of all Mime message and multipart parts
+   contained in the body (the single empty separator line between the
+   headers and the body is not part of the body). The "body" here is the
+   body as found in the posted article as transmitted by the posting
+   agent.
+
+   This header is to be regarded as obsolete, and it will likely be
+   removed entirely in a future version of this standard. In the
+   meantime, its use is deprecated.