I tried sending Spring [1] the following email:
**To:** XXXXXX@springdew.com > **From:** XXXX@conman.org > **Date:** Tue, 11 Sep 2001 03:42:07 -0400 (EDT) > **Subject:** Greg's Geocities Site >
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/4891/ [2]
-spc
It seems that Lookout [3] (another fine Microsoft [4] product) had problems with that email. All Spring got was:
**To:** XXXXXX@springdew.com > **From:** XXXX@conman.org > **Date:** Tue, 11 Sep 2001 03:42:07 -0400 (EDT) > **Subject:** Greg's Geocities Site >
-spc
Nice, eh?
Of course, in talking with Spring about it, she's of the opinion that this isn't a Lookout problem, as it's happened with someone else we know when he sent email to a mailing list.
Actually, now that I think of it, I think what's happening is that Lookout (and the mailing list software) is not RFC 822 (Request For Comments---Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages) [5] compliant. Or at least, it gets a few details wrong. The line of text can be interpreted at a header line, but the email headers are separated by a blank line:
>
```
3.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A message consists of header fields and, optionally, a body.
The body is simply a sequence of lines containing ASCII charac-
ters. It is separated from the headers by a null line (i.e., a
line with nothing preceding the CRLF).
```
§ 3.1 of RFC 822
What the programs in question seem to be doing is looking for the first line that doesn't seem to be a header line, and ignoring blank lines altogether.
You know, there are standards for a reason … [As I was writing this entry, I sent another test to Spring, making the first line appear to be a header line. She got the message as I sent it. Perhaps Lookout is explicitely looking for H-T-T-P-: … ]
[2] http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/4891/