MvdV>> Some will argue that the message contains a binary header MvdV>> followed by blocks of control lnes and text. The (UTF-8) text MvdV>> block starts after the first block of control lines. Golded MvdV>> takes that POV:
KE> There is no rule that says, that the kludges have to be put in one KE> section, before the "visible" text starts.
That is why I mentioned "blocks of control lines and text". There can be more than one block of each. A blocl can be as small as a single line.
But as you say: there are no rules. UTF-8 in general and the presence of a byte order marker in oparticular was not foreseen when the fidonet specs were written. so the fidonet specs do not tell us where to put it.
You say the placing in in what you say is midstream is wrong, but the Unicode standard says this:
> Usage
> If the BOM character appears in the middle of a data stream, Unicode > says it should be interpreted as a "zero-width non-breaking space" > (essentially a null character).
So... placing a BOM in the middle of the data stream is not forbidden.
A decent viewer should not display it. If Maurice sees it, it is his viewer that is at fault.
KE> Maintaining the POV of one product does not make it so. Besides it is KE> a function of the editor to suppress lines, or not export lines that KE> start with a ctrl-A.
MvdV>> You see the byte order mark as the first three bytes of the MvdV>> text block.
KE> I can see that it is there, but that does not make it correct.
It does not make it incorrect either. The Unicode standard allows it.
We can argue if the presence of a BOM is desirable in the Fidonet environment. But unless we make a rule to outlaw it, it is allowed by all the standards that apply.
