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 Message Headers

Rules specify precisely how postal mail must be packaged and addressed. The return address must be in the upper left corner of the envelope, and the destination address must be positioned correctly in the center of the envelope. Envelope size ranges are specified, and proper packaging for parcels is defined. To be interoperable, email messages must be at least as rigorously specified. The format of the data must be specified so as to avoid problems stemming from different data representation standards. The format of the messages
themselves must be specified so that all systems that handle messages know where the message begins and ends. The format of the message handling information—the message headers—must be specified so that all systems know where to look to find the destination and source addresses and any other relevant information.

Character Representation

Vendors of operating systems and computer hardware are often bound by their history or corporate goals to specific data representation schemes. These different data representation schemes can make the goal of interoperability between different systems that much more difficult, and interoperable open standard email is possible only if the contents of the message can be transmitted unchanged from source to destination. Sometimes this means it must be converted, as when the message originates on an IBM mainframe in EBCDIC
and is destined to an ASCII-based system.