Chris, I think that you may a point. We certainly seem to be starting
to define an extensible service, with many conflicting requirements.
I had thought along the lines of a virtual data truck with many
"application" using the delivery services of a transport service. Those
applications could be wide ranging but with a common require to transfer
data being user entities.
Kind regards
David
David Morgan
Strategic Systems
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mail-ng(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org
[mailto:owner-mail-ng(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org] On
Behalf Of Bonatti, Chris
Sent: 09 February 2004 12:10
To: mail-ng(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org
Subject: Email or Something Else
I've been watching the postings here, and reading (as much as I
can stand ;-) all the diverse requirements. The breadth of the
requirements expresed is really staggering.
- We want low throughput mobile devices, but we want to be able
to send large files.
- We want strong user authentication and tracing, but we want to
support anonymous traffic.
- We want simplicity, but we want flexibility and extensibility.
- We want backward compatibility, but we want a clean slate.
- We want instant delivery, but we want our messages saved till
we get back.
I find myself wondering if we aren't scoping requirements for
more than a single application. Maybe we need a several
cooperating, or at least related, applications that together
cover the full spectrum of desired requirements. Say we defined
several different "applications" with a compatible framework,
message formats, naming scheme and some means to aid MUAs in
determining which "mode" to use to for a particular message.
Perhaps a set of applications might include:
- A push-mode store-and-forward style transport;
- A push-the-heading and pull-the-body transport;
- A connectionless IM-style transport.
I'm not trying to move ahead into systemm design, per se.
However, I think the idea that we might be working on a SET OF
applications has considerable bearing on how we sort
requirements.
Thoughts, contrary or supportive, are of course welcome.
Best regards,
Chris