On Tue May 24 2005 11:32, John Leslie wrote:
Philosophically I quite agree with Tony: I'd much prefer to use the
term "envelope" the way I used it ten years ago. I appear to be in the
minority.
I can accept the need to change: what is _very_ hard to accept is
the idea that I should replace a clear an distinct meaning with one
which is neither clear nor distinct.
[...]
It would be a nice thing (TM) if we could agree on a meaning which
_is_ clear and distinct. Otherwise, IMHO, there's a serious danger of
miscommunication.
Like it or not -- and it's clear that you don't -- the term is overloaded
when not used with a qualifier (viz. one that distinguishes one meaning
from others). So an unqualified "envelope" may mean one thing in the
context of a discussion exclusively about SMTP (where "SMTP envelope"
would be the corresponding qualified term) and a very different thing in
the context of a discussion about IMAP (where "IMAP envelope" would be
the corresponding qualified term). In a general discussion of email, we
need to include not only SMTP and IMAP, but other relevant protocols,
the message format, etc. Bottom line: if you want a meaning which is
clear and distinct, use an appropriate qualifier.