Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) by CS.UTK.EDU with SMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id OAA11268; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:51:09 -0500 (EST) Received: by cs.cs.utk.edu (bulk_mailer v1.9); Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:49:57 -0500 Received: by CS.UTK.EDU (cf v2.9s-UTK) id OAA11054; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:49:56 -0500 (EST) Received: from info.dsv.su.se (info.dsv.su.se [130.237.161.221]) by CS.UTK.EDU with ESMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id OAA10948; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 14:49:31 -0500 (EST) Received: from [130.237.150.138] (jph1.dsv.su.se [130.237.150.138]) by info.dsv.su.se (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA13426 for ; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:49:23 +0100 (MET) X-Sender: jpalme@mail.dsv.su.se Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199803191959.OAA09778@CS.UTK.EDU> References: Your message of "Thu, 19 Mar 1998 21:41:19 +0100." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 20:41:44 +0100 To: IETF working group on revision of mail standards From: Jacob Palme Subject: Idea for a new solution of the X-headers dispute Here is an idea for a new solution of the X-headers dispute. Specify that if someone implements a header X-Foo, specify that such an implementor should, on receipt, treat "X-Foo" and "Foo" as synonyms. I.e., remove the "X-" before interpreting the header field name. If an "X-Foo" header field is made into an IETF standardized field "Foo", and if "Foo" gets a very different function than "X-Foo", then implementors can begin handling "Foo" and "X-Foo" as different headers at that time. If this is done, we will be able, in the future, to migrate from X-Foo to only Foo without any problem. Note: This method cannot be applied to some existing headers, for example "Sender" and "X-Sender". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacob Palme (Stockholm University and KTH) for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme