Re: empty quoted strings and other oddities

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

> > so? there are lots of addresses which are valid syntax but
> > not valid because the domain is not defined or the IP
> > address (in the domain literal) does not exist or is not
> > assigned to a host.
> 
> I'm not sure I buy that reasoning.  You seem to be saying that since it's
> not possible to detect all invalid addresses syntactically that the ability
> to trap some syntactically (or more than currently trapped) is irrelevant.

no, I'm saying that 

- there is useful separation of function here between detecting syntax
  errors and detecting addresses that are invalid for other reasons that 
  should not be discarded 

- being able to detect that a few very-seldom-used addresses are
  illegal by means of syntax is of infintesimal value

- trying to detect a significant number of invalid addresses by means
  of syntax is likely to both increase errors (because there are more
  things that can go wrong) and to impair the utility of email addresses 
  at some future date.  

in other words, it's a fool's errand.

Keith