A.P. Lawrence

2005/01/31 RFC822

RFC822 describes email. You can learn a lot from it. For example, did you know that "xyz(hi there)@xyz.com" is perfectly valid and will be delivered to "xyz"?

It will probably show as "To: xyz@xyz.com (hello)" in the received message. Another format that can actually be useful with some mail systems involves the "+" symbol: "xyz+hello@xyz.com". With some systems (Gmail, for one), you can apply filter rules to catch such additions and thereby do automatic filing, etc. You can combine these: "xyz+hello(hi there)@xyz.com". With Gmail, you'd have to "Show original" to see the "(hi there)", but the "hello" shows up in the ordinary view.

More extreme addresses probably work also: "x (hey) yz@xyz.com" will be addressed to "x.yz@xyz.com" and will probably be delivered without incident to "xyz@xyz.com".

See http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc822.html

Psst - Wanna work for yourself?

Comments
WordsoftheDayRFCJan :

---January 31, 2005

According to one of the comments at the bottom of the page, RFC822 is superceded by RFC2822. See http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html

--Bob

---January 31, 2005

Yes, and there are wonderful examples of comments and white space there too - I forgot to mention that.

--TonyLawrence

Not to mention the infamous underscore.

--BigDumbDinosaur

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