Introduction to MIME
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Until recently, email could transmit only plain English text.
Words in other languages, with characters that don't belong to the
character set used in English, couldn't be sent.
For instance, Spanish-speaking email users had to use kludges like
monta~na to stand for the word montaña.
If you wanted to send data, pictures, word-processor documents, sound,
video, and other non-text messages, you had to use workarounds that
many recipients couldn't handle.
In 1992, the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, MIME, started to
change that.
The MIME standard lets users around the world send text and documents
in a way that everyone can receive.
If a recipient's email user agent can't display MIME messages,
the messages will still be in a format that makes most of the text
readable.
Instead of trying to change everyones' mail transport systems, MIME was
designed to work around limitations -- to work with existing systems.
More and more email user agents support MIME.
MH support started with a set of patches to MH version 6.7.2.
exmh sends and receives MIME mail.
mh-e can send MIME.
If you use xmh, there are patches in
the Metamail package for MIME support.
Another Chapter
has more information about MIME.
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