Message-Id: <4.3.0.20000316082531.00bff760@mail.bayarea.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 08:36:05 -0800
To: Dan Oscarsson <Dan.Oscarsson@trab.se>
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Subject: Re: Is it good to publish a new RFC on SMTP without
  internationalisation?
Cc: klensin@jck.com, drums@cs.utk.edu
In-Reply-To: <200003161130.MAA20735@valinor.malmo.trab.se>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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At 12:30 PM 3/16/00 +0100, Dan Oscarsson wrote:
>I think you, Matti Aarnio and Perry Metzger all think that I want to
>start using UTF-8 without any compatibility to the current
>ASCII only world. I do not!

Dan,

There are two lines of thinking in response to your note.  I fear you have 
noticed only one of them.

The one that has dominated this thread pertains to the details of an 
approach to adding internationalization.  The most significant point about 
the responses to your suggestion, in that regard, is that a number of 
experienced email protocol designers (and implementors) believe
your approach won't work.  That makes for a nice, healthy debate, out of 
which might come a solid proposal.  As noted, DRUMS is not the proper venue 
for that debate but, yes, it would be a good one to pursue, somewhere.

The point that has been missed was Klensin's main point, concerning 
process:  Whatever conventions are pursued for internationalization in 
email, they won't happen quickly.  John used "months" as an optimistic 
choice for developing the specification.  As he and the other respondents 
well know -- and as the content of the various respondents should make 
clear by demonstration -- MANY months is more likely.  And then there is 
deployment.

For global standardization, nothing is ever simple or quick.  Hence, it 
really is not feasible to "slip a change in" at a late stage like this.

d/

=-=-=-=-=
Dave Crocker  <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg Consulting  <www.brandenburg.com>
Tel: +1.408.246.8253,  Fax: +1.408.273.6464
675 Spruce Drive,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA