Thread View: comp.sys.next.misc
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Started by Mark Crispin
Tue, 14 Apr 1992 08:58
Re: MIME-capable software
Author: Mark Crispin
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 08:58
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 08:58
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Scott Anguish -
The term `Proposed Standard' is a technical term used in the
Internet Engineering Task Force to refer to a document that has
already been discussed, debugged, implemented, and voted upon by a
working group and made available for general comment by the IETF as a
whole.
After a period of a few months in which all objections have
either been addressed or rejected, it is advanced to a Proposed
Standard. After a further period, it is advanced to Draft Standard,
and finally to Standard.
That is, nothing becomes a Proposed Standard until it has already
been accepted by the relevant standards body. `Standard' in this
sense means `immutable, cast in stone, no more changes allowed ever'
as opposed to `something generally accepted as the right thing to do'
or `something widely implemented and used.' For example, few people
would consider nntp (Net News Transfer Protocol) to be `non-standard,'
but officially under IETF rules it is an Experimental Protocol.
Under this definition, NewsGrazer is not a Standard. It has
never been through any review or discussion. It has not even been in
existance long enough to become a Proposed Standard under IETF rules.
NewsGrazer is not even an Experimental Protocol, because no formal
document of its format has ever been submitted by NeXT for public
inspection. Nor has there been any public review.
The reason for this long procedure is to prevent proprietary
protocols which favor a single vendor from becoming `standards'.
Public review prevents this from happening. If you think such
`standards' might be a good thing, then you should see some of the
`standards' which were narrowly averted, such as the `standard' for
how you log into a computer that Prime tried to inflict upon the US
back in the 1970's.
Re: MIME-capable software
Author: Sam Goldberger
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 18:13
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 18:13
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Having followed this thread for a while, a couple of reflections: Prior to the recent outburst of discussion, I had been corresponding with Mark about POP and IMAP. He'd directed me to the ftp server at uwash, where I'd snagged MailManager, EasyMail &c. What I didn't do was to read the README file carefully, or more importantly, the RFC upon which MailManager is based. When you do this, it becomes apparent that Mark's remarks come from the context of years of work and research on mail in general multi-media mail in particular, and considerable thought on how this valuable service can best be propogated over the internet. I think it would behoove us (and perhaps NeXT?) to download this software, compile it, and read the docs. I came away very favorably impressed with Mark's efforts on all fronts. His software is extremely impressive in itself. Having gone through through this process, I came to understand better Mark's frustration about the level of discourse about mailers, especially given the fact that there are some very important issues at stake, issues which go well beyond the NeXT community. Having been now alerted to those issues through Mark's efforts, I think we cannot afford to ignore the rest of the world, and take up a "NeXT: Love it or Leave it" position. One may not approve of Mark's guerilla techniques for introducing a thread; in my own case, it was a wake-up call. Sometimes you've got to hit the mule over the head to get its attention, and we can surely be quite mulish. I would also like to say that Mark has been exceedingly patient in responding to exceedingly stupid questions from a UNIX tyro. Yes, he has a mission--but it is a good mission, and I wish him great success. Indeed, I'd like to ponder how the NeXT community could assist him in his efforts. But do read the docs, and reach your own conclusions. Sam sphere@netcom.com
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