From:	RTPUX1::RTPUX1::"MCNC!ESTHER.UUCP%UUNET.UU.NET!TA2@RTPARK.GE.COM" 14-JUN-1989 10:46
To:	vmsnet@falcon.ge.com
Subj:	Set Forward Case Sensitivity

Bob Tinkelman has observed a difference in VMS Mail's Set Forward command
between VMS 4.7 and VMS 5.1. Specifically the forward address gets converted
to uppercase even inside of quotes.
 
First, a comment directly to Bob's problem. Then, some comments about
where the problem may be coming from.
 
Bob is effectively using Set Forward for aliases. My solution for
aliases has been to create logical names. Using this method, I don't
believe I have ever seen the case conversion problems Bob reports.
 
-----
 
When we were finishing up UUCP_MAILSHR for 1.1, we discovered similar case
conversion problems. (Actually, lack of conversion is a better description.)
Everything worked fine on my VMS 5.1 system. As soon as we put it up on Jamie's
4.7 machine, things fell into a hole.
 
We found that in VMS Mail, usernames and DECnet node names MUST be in
uppercase. When you type them in to the Mail Send command, your typin
gets upcased. Prior to UUCP_MAILSHR 1.1, local target addresses were
getting converted to uppercase as a side effect of the way UUXQT
passed the address on the MAIL/PROTOCOL command line. UUCP_MAILSHR 1.1 doesn't
pass the target address to Mail in the same way. On VMS 4, we started getting
lowercase usernames sent to Mail, who got real annoyed. You'll discover code
in UUCP_MAIL.PAS to correct the case of local addresses. As I said, for VMS
5.1, we didn't have this problem - local addresses seem to get upcased
correctly after we hand them from UUCP_MAILSHR to Mail itself.
 
My guess is that the behavior that Bob observed is a wide-of-the-mark
implementation related to the same thing. Somewhere, Mail is trying
to cover up some problems with address case, and the solution has been
to force case conversion to upper case.
 
--- Tom
Tom Allebrandi				VMS User's Network Working Group
Advanced Computer Consulting, Inc	Internet:    ta2@acci.com
Charlottesville, VA, USA		Bitnet:      ta2%esther@virginia.edu
804 977 4272				UUCP:        ta2@esther.uucp
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