At 01:07 14/08/2000 -0700, ned(_dot_)freed(_at_)innosoft(_dot_)com wrote:
The IESG has been asked to consider draft-ward-esmtp-slide-03.txt, "SMTP
Service Extension for Slightly Differing Multicast Messages (SLIDE)", for
publication as an experimental protocol. Since this document describes a
SMTP extension of some complexity I'd like to get some community
feedback on it.
If we can kill it, I would recommend doing so.
The proposal allows us an almost infinite amount of nonsense, including
sending signed messages in one transaction with some copies that verify and
some that don't, sending messages with different Received: lines, and so on
and so forth.
Note also that it fails to respect any kind of envelope/header/body
separation; the SLIDERANGEs can point anywhere, including at the
header/body boundary. So this is legal:
From: a < range for B starts here
To: b
You know, I sent this message:
From: a < range for C starts here
To: c
I fail completely to see that the percieved bandwidth reduction is anywhere
near being a payback for the added complexity.
If bandwidth is an issue, a GZIP SMTP extension makes much more sense, and
saves much more bandwidth, without destroying the SMTP model of header/body
separation (what's left of it).
If it was a separate protocol, not an SMTP thingy, it could be left to die
on its own. As it is, it does not have my approval.
Harald
--
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, alvestrand(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com
+47 41 44 29 94
Personal email: Harald(_at_)Alvestrand(_dot_)no