🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <P2M42+@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1585@merlin.bhpmrl.oz.au> ianh@bhpmrl.oz.au (Ian Hoyle) writes:
>> bhp = bhp keylink = /C=AU/ADMD=TELEMEMO/O=BHP/G=BHP/S=MELBOURNE/@murtoa

>THAT's what the famous X.400 addresses look like?

Not really.  Since X.400 is a binary, not character, protocol, its
addresses are binary data structures.  An X.400 address is a property list,
containing attributes such as geographic location, full name, and company
name (i.e. the same kinds of things one uses to address postal mail), as
well as computer-oriented attributes such as the names of the network and
computer.

That gibberish is a compact textual representation of X.400, suitable for
storage in textual databases such as the Unix aliases file, or for use when
encapsulating X.400 mail in a textual mail environment such as SMTP/RFC822.

The days are long gone when we should expect ordinary users to type
"addresses" into their mail system user interfaces.  The actual form that
the user sees will depend on their mail system and its general user
interaction style.  A simple interface would display "Country:", "Last
name:", "Computer name:", etc. prompts (with suitable defaults, of course).
On a windowed system the attributes to be filled in would be chosen out of
a menu or the user might fill in a dialogue.  The important attribute of
these interfaces is that the attribute names would be displayed in a
natural language, not some computer abbreviation; e.g., what's represented
as "C=AU" above would be displayed or entered as "Country: Australia".
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar