Nathaniel,
I really really do not like the existing mechanism. I am
reluctant to say the words show-stopper, but I would really prefer to
not have external-reference at all than have this proposal!!!! Real
loud now. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO GIVE EXPLICT MAIL SERVER SYNTAX!!!
I neither see how to do this with your text, nor is it obvious how to
extend your syntax to do it. Please show me how to get this essential
(In terms of remote retreival) functionality out of your mechanism.
Please send me an example of how I can tell people that this sound
bite is available by sending the following message.
To: sound-bite-server(_at_)nri(_dot_)reston(_dot_)va(_dot_)us
Subject: Dan Quail's Latest
--------
CURRENT: politics/quail/
SEND: new_school.quote
SEND: index
Please, this is essential to my concept of what external body is all
about! Without it, I might as well not have it.
Second, and relativly minor, I do not like having arbitrary expanding
attribute/value pairs! I want the set of pairs to be limited when the
content type is defined. That way, If I recognise the content-type, I
can parse and deal with the set of attributes expected for that
content type.
Greg V.