transfer level
**************
Contents inserted in a message are represented by 7bit (*Note
(tm-en)7bit::), 8bit (See (tm-en)8bit) or binary (*Note
(tm-en)binary::).
If a message is translated by 7bit-through MTA (See (tm-en)MTA),
there is no need to encode 7bit data, but 8bit and binary data must be
encoded to 7bit data.
Similarly, if a message is translated by 8bit-through MTA, there is
no need to encode 7bit or 8bit data, but binary data must be encoded to
7bit or 8bit data.
*[Memo]*
EBCDIC MTA breaks 7bit data, so in this case, 7bit data must be
encoded by base64. But I don't know EBCDIC. (^_^;
Similarly, I wish ASCII-printable only MTA and code-conversion MTA
disappeared. (^_^;
Maybe there are binary-through MTA, but I think it is not major.
*transfer level* represents how range data is available. tm-edit
has a variable `mime-editor/transfer-level' to represent transfer level.
- Variable: mime-editor/transfer-level
transfer level.
If transfer level of a data is over it, a data is encoded to 7bit.
Currently, 7 or 8 is available. Default value is 7.
In extension plan, EBCDIC will be 5, ASCII printable only will be
6, binary will be 9. But it will not be implemented.
*[Memo]*
transfer level is only for body, not for header (See header).
RFC 1521 extends RFC 822 (See (tm-en)RFC 822) to use 8bit data
in body, but it requires to use us-ascii (See (tm-en)us-ascii)
in header.