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+Network Working Group H. Nussbacher
+Request for Comments: 1555 Israeli Inter-University
+Category: Informational Computer Center
+ Y. Bourvine
+ Hebrew University
+ December 1993
+
+
+ Hebrew Character Encoding for Internet Messages
+
+Status of this Memo
+
+ This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
+ does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
+ this memo is unlimited.
+
+Abstract
+
+ This document describes the encoding used in electronic mail [RFC822]
+ for transferring Hebrew. The standard devised makes use of MIME
+ [RFC1521] and ISO-8859-8.
+
+Description
+
+ All Hebrew text when transferred via e-mail must first be translated
+ into ISO-8859-8, and then encoded using either Quoted-Printable
+ (preferable) or Base64, as defined in MIME.
+
+ The following table provides the four most common Hebrew encodings:
+
+ PC IBM PC ISO
+ Hebrew 8859-8
+ letter 8-bit 7-bit 8-bit
+ Ascii EBCDIC Ascii Ascii
+ ---------- ----- ------ ----- ------
+ alef 128 41 96 224
+ bet 129 42 97 225
+ gimel 130 43 98 226
+ dalet 131 44 99 227
+ he 132 45 100 228
+ vav 133 46 101 229
+ zayin 134 47 102 230
+ het 135 48 103 231
+ tet 136 49 104 232
+ yod 137 51 105 233
+ kaf sofit 138 52 106 234
+ kaf 139 53 107 235
+ lamed 140 54 108 236
+
+
+
+Nussbacher & Bourvine [Page 1]
+
+RFC 1555 Hebrew Character Encoding December 1993
+
+
+ mem sofit 141 55 109 237
+ mem 142 56 110 238
+ nun sofit 143 57 111 239
+ nun 144 58 112 240
+ samekh 145 59 113 241
+ ayin 146 62 114 242
+ pe sofit 147 63 115 243
+ pe 148 64 116 244
+ tsadi sofit 149 65 117 245
+ tsadi 150 66 118 246
+ qof 151 67 119 247
+ resh 152 68 120 248
+ shin 153 69 121 249
+ tav 154 71 122 250
+
+ Note: All values are in decimal ASCII except for the EBCDIC column
+ which is in hexadecimal.
+
+ ISO 8859-8 8-bit ASCII is also known as IBM Codepage 862.
+
+ The default directionality of the text is visual. This means that
+ the Hebrew text is encoded from left to right (even though Hebrew
+ text is entered right to left) and is transmitted from left to right
+ via the standard MIME mechanisms. Other methods to control
+ directionality are supported and are covered in the complementary RFC
+ 1556, "Handling of Bi-directional Texts in MIME".
+
+ All discussion regarding Hebrew in email, as well as discussions of
+ Hebrew in other TCP/IP protocols, is discussed in the ilan-
+ h@vm.tau.ac.il list. To subscribe send mail to listserv@vm.tau.ac.il
+ with one line of text as follows:
+
+ subscribe ilan-h firstname lastname
+
+MIME Considerations
+
+ Mail that is sent that contains Hebrew must contain the following
+ minimum amount of MIME headers:
+
+ MIME-Version: 1.0
+ Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-8
+ Content-transfer-encoding: BASE64 | Quoted-Printable
+
+ Users should keep their text to within 72 columns so as to allow
+ email quoting via the prefixing of each line with a ">". Users
+ should also realize that not all MIME implementations handle email
+ quoting properly, so quoting email that contains Hebrew text may lead
+ to problems.
+
+
+
+Nussbacher & Bourvine [Page 2]
+
+RFC 1555 Hebrew Character Encoding December 1993
+
+
+ In the future, when all email systems implement fully transparent 8-
+ bit email as defined in RFC 1425 and RFC 1426 this standard will
+ become partially obsolete. The "Content-type:" field will still be
+ necessary, as well as directionality (which might be implicit for
+ 8BIT, but is something for future discussion), but the "Content-
+ transfer-encoding" will be altered to use 8BIT rather than Base64 or
+ Quoted-Printable.
+
+Optional
+
+ It is recommended, although not required, to support Hebrew encoding
+ in mail headers as specified in RFC 1522. Specifically, the Q-
+ encoding format is to be the default method used for encoding Hebrew
+ in Internet mail headers and not the B-encoding method.
+
+Caveats
+
+ Within Israel there are in excess of 40 Listserv lists which will now
+ start using Hebrew for part of their conversations. Normally,
+ Listserv will deliver mail from a distribution list with a
+ "shortened" header, one that does not include the extra MIME headers.
+ This will cause the MIME encoding to be left intact and the user
+ agent decoding software will not be able to interpret the mail. Each
+ user is able to customize how Listserv delivers mail. For lists that
+ contain Hebrew, users should send mail to Listserv with the following
+ command:
+
+ set listname full
+
+ where listname is the name of the list which the user wants full,
+ unabridged headers to appear. This will update their private entry
+ and all subsequent mail from that list will be with full RFC822
+ headers, including MIME headers.
+
+ In addition, Listserv usually maintains automatic archives of all
+ postings to a list. These archives, contained in the file "listname
+ LOGyymm", do not contain the MIME headers, so all encoding
+ information will be lost. This is a limitation of the Listserv
+ software.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Nussbacher & Bourvine [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1555 Hebrew Character Encoding December 1993
+
+
+Example
+
+ Below is a short example of Quoted-Printable encoded Hebrew email:
+
+ Date: Sun, 06 Jun 93 15:25:35 IDT
+ From: Hank Nussbacher <HANK@VM.BIU.AC.IL>
+ Subject: Sample Hebrew mail
+ To: Hank Nussbacher <Hank@BARILVM>,
+ Yehavi Bourvine <yehavi@hujivms>
+ MIME-Version: 1.0
+ Content-Type: Text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-8
+ Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE
+
+ The end of this line contains Hebrew .=EC=E0=F8=F9=E9 =F5=
+ =F8=E0=EE =ED=E5=EC=F9
+
+
+ Hank Nussbacher =F8=EB=E1=F1=E5=
+ =F0 =F7=F0=E4
+
+Acknowledgements
+
+ Many thanks to Rafi Sadowsky and Nathaniel Borenstein for all their
+ help.
+
+References
+
+ [ISO-8859] Information Processing -- 8-bit Single-Byte Coded
+ Graphic Character Sets, Part 8: Latin/Hebrew alphabet,
+ ISO 8859-8, 1988.
+
+ [RFC822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet
+ Text Messages", STD 11, RFC 822, UDEL, August 1982.
+
+ [RFC1425] Klensin, J., Freed N., Rose M., Stefferud E., and
+ D. Crocker, "SMTP Service Extensions", RFC 1425,
+ United Nations University, Innosoft International, Inc.,
+ Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., Network Management
+ Associates, Inc., The Branch Office, February 1993.
+
+ [RFC1426] Klensin, J., Freed N., Rose M., Stefferud E., and
+ D. Crocker, "SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIME
+ Transport", RFC 1426, United Nations University, Innosoft
+ International, Inc., Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., Network
+ Management Associates, Inc., The Branch Office, February
+ 1993.
+
+
+
+
+
+Nussbacher & Bourvine [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1555 Hebrew Character Encoding December 1993
+
+
+ [RFC1521] Borenstein N., and N. Freed, "MIME (Multipurpose
+ Internet Mail Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for
+ Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message
+ Bodies", Bellcore, Innosoft, September 1993.
+
+ [RFC1522] Moore K., "MIME Part Two: Message Header Extensions for
+ Non-ASCII Text", University of Tennessee, September 1993.
+
+Security Considerations
+
+ Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
+
+Authors' Addresses
+
+ Hank Nussbacher
+ Computer Center
+ Tel Aviv University
+ Ramat Aviv
+ Israel
+
+ Fax: +972 3 6409118
+ Phone: +972 3 6408309
+ EMail: hank@vm.tau.ac.il
+
+
+ Yehavi Bourvine
+ Computer Center
+ Hebrew University
+ Jerusalem
+ Israel
+
+ Phone: +972 2 585684
+ Fax: +972 2 527349
+ EMail: yehavi@vms.huji.ac.il
+
+
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+Nussbacher & Bourvine [Page 5]
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