Fred,
The core problem of email as far as I am concerned is the interminable
forwarding problem.
There I will disagree. The present model in fact gets messages from where
they are to where they need to go.
Well, the concern for complexity in the core is always worth considering.
However, getting rid of multi-hop SMTP relaying is only the tip of the
iceburg. Personally I think that having all those IP routers doing store and
forward is a far greater source of problems.
Let's just fully interconnect every host.
<Sermon>
On the other hand, perhaps intermediaries are a natural part of
packet-switching, as I was raised to believe, and perhaps the Internet was
quite specifically created on the basis that global homogeneity is not a
realistic goal, neither at the packet-switching level nor the administrative
level.
Tussles abound. They always have. It seems likely they always will.
Store and forward is a model that permits handling those boundaries.
Let's not complain about intermediation points. They have provided
interesting careers for most of us.
</Sermon>
d/
--
Dave Crocker <dcrocker-at-brandenburg-dot-com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://brandenburg.com>