From: Bill Kelly Date: 2006-01-05T08:48:48+09:00 Subject: Re: Email Address Regex [was Re: silly regex question] From: > > On Jan 4, 2006, at 1:27 PM, Bill Kelly wrote: >> Personally, right or wrong, to catch that I just reject >> email addresses with a "<" or ">" in them. I'll admit I >> don't really care if some spec says it's possible to legally >> form email addresses with those characters. That may make >> me a bad person. :) > > It doesn't make you a bad person but it certainly makes > your application less interoperable than it might be. > For example, the vast majority of email addresses on this > mailing list are of the form: > > Bill Kelly > > In some GUI environments it is harder to select the portion > between the <>'s than to select the entire address. I'd agree that ideally my web form should be smart enough to handle that. I started out with no validation at all, and only added the <> rejection after observing the occasional submit with that syntax causing a bounced email. As I recall, I asked my then-employer what degree of thoroughness he wanted me to invest in coding the email validation logic, the answer was something like, "Just give them the chance to enter it again, properly, in the manner requested. If they can't follow simple directions then I don't think we want them using our software." Woot! ;) > From RFC 1123: > > At every layer of the protocols, there is a general rule whose > application can lead to enormous benefits in robustness and > interoperability: > > "Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative > in what you send"

agreed in general,

but I don't think everyone is in agreement that browsers' willingness to render this muck have resulted in a net benefit for mankind - although, i have

heard it argued both ways. :) Regards, Bill