Although HTTP has effectively displaced FTP the functionality is quite
different and very few people would consider them interchangeable to the extent
that a common identifier would be useful or meaningful.
The replacement of Telnet by SSH is closer but I still don't think that there
are many people who want a single identifier to refer to them both.
I don't think HTTP is ever going to superceed the terminal interaction style
mode of FTP. I can however see the residual functionality of FTP being absorbed
into SSH-Plus. This would be logical for another reason, it would allow the
problem of tunelling and encrypting the data channel through NAT to be solved.
Given that Iain was raising an objection to a proposal nobody was actually
making I think it can be dropped.
________________________________
From: Tony Finch [mailto:dot(_at_)dotat(_dot_)at]
Sent: Wed 12/12/2007 10:43 AM
To: Iain Calder
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Revising full standards
On Tue, 11 Dec 2007, Iain Calder wrote:
Protocols *can* get pushed aside by challengers that aren't their
descendants. For example, suppose a completely different protocol
called IEP (Internet Email Protocol) arises in the future and, due to
its vastly superior characteristics, becomes the dominant mail transport
system. SMTP would then become historic and IEP would need to be marked
as the current standard. Under these circumstances, an IETF-SMTP label
proves a poor choice. The usefulness of the STD-10 label, however, is
unaffected.
This has already happened in at least two cases. Telnet and rsh have
largely been displaced by ssh, and FTP and Gopher by HTTP. I'm not sure
that it's useful to have a formal numeric label for remote login, or file
transfer, or email, when we have perfectly adequate generic terminology.
I'm not even sure the IETF should make a de jure choice between
competitors, especially when it's likely to be embarrassingly different
from the market's de facto choice. That, too, has already happened, to the
OSI protocols.
Tony.
--
f.a.n.finch <dot(_at_)dotat(_dot_)at> http://dotat.at/
LUNDY FASTNET IRISH SEA: SOUTH 5 TO 7. MODERATE OR ROUGH. DRIZZLE. MODERATE OR
GOOD.
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