What's up with all those equals signs anyway? (lars.ingebrigtsen.no)

Article summary

The article explains the origin of equals signs in old emails, which is due to the 'quoted printable' encoding used to wrap long lines and encode non-ASCII characters. This encoding uses an equals sign to indicate a line break or a special character. However, when the emails were converted from CRLF to NL line endings, the equals signs were not properly decoded, resulting in the appearance of equals signs in the text. The article attributes this to incompetence on the part of whoever processed the emails.

Main themes

• Email encoding
• Quoted printable
• Line endings
• Character encoding
• Email history
• Technical explanations

What commenters say

• The appearance of equals signs in old emails is due to a combination of buggy continuation line decoding and buggy non-ASCII decoding.
• The use of equals signs for encoding is a technical necessity, but the decoding process can be flawed, leading to errors.
• The conversion from CRLF to NL line endings is a common step in email processing, but it can lead to issues if not done properly.
• The explanation provided in the article is plausible, but alternative theories, such as historical transformation of emails, should also be considered.
• The issue is not just a matter of technical incompetence, but also a result of the complexities of character encoding and line endings in email protocols.
• The article's explanation is convincing, but some commenters remain skeptical and point out potential flaws in the reasoning.