Goals
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Multimedia, multi-language, multi-component extension of RFC-822
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Full backward compatibility with RFC-822
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Open design to incorporate multiple well-known formats
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Easy extension to new types and formats
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Retain RFC-822 header+body format
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Add new header fields
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Allow for multipart multimedia bodies
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Include media type and encoding information in new header fields such as: Content-Type, Content-Description, Content-Transfer-Encoding, Content-ID
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Retain 7-bit ASCII for all valid encoding schemes
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Implement multi-component bodies via a special 'magic type' Content-Type: multipart
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