Message-Id: <26012416035283@vms3.macc.wisc.edu>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 96 16:03 CDT
From: "Eric Norman (MACC)" <EJNORMAN@macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: A suggestion for IPv6 domain literals
To: MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU
CC: drums@cs.utk.edu

I probably replied to the wrong mesage first, sorry.

> On Tue, 23 Jan 96 23:01 CDT, Eric Norman (MACC) wrote:
> > I think domain literals should be eliminated.  They've been
> > deprecated ever since day one; it's time to just say bye-bye to 'em.

> I object to this.  Domain literals are invaluable when the DNS is broken, or
> for logging purposes.

I agree that logging IP numbers is quite valuable; however, that has
to do with the format of addresses in RFC822 or RFC821.

When the DNS is broken, what problem does having domain literals solve?
And for whom?  Can't such problems be solved another way?  I'm not
claiming that I know the answers, but I think such questions need to
be asked and addressed.

My motivation for suggesting elimination of some things is to try to
keep things as simple as possible.  I believe that making things simple
will have a significant contribution to making the electronic mail
system easy to understand, reliable, interoperable, have more "working"
inplementations, and all that good stuff.

By "simple as possible", I *do not* mean reducing thing to the lowest
common denominator.  What I mean in this case is that things that are
rarely used and only in exceptional circumstances should not be part
of the standard if there are other ways to solve the problem.

> I object *very* strongly to any move to deprecate group syntax.  We use it.

I suggested elimination, not deprecation.  Since people are using it,
I'll suggest deprecation instead; I thing mailing lists are a better
solution.

-- Eric Norman