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RE: user-visible goals

2004-02-24 01:15:31

-----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 Bruce Lilly
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 10:18 PM
To: mail-ng(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: user-visible goals

We should keep in mind the excellent suggestions 
in RFC 1958. As this relates to user-visible
goals:

- users want a solution today, even if it is incomplete.

Conventional email with way too many "patches" to accommodate for
shifting user requirements is the solution today, and it is incomplete.
What we need to do is think new, leave "traditional" email as it is, and
develop something that users will want to merge to because it is The
Next Big Thing(TM). We should IMNSHO not let ourselves be held back by
the way email works today, because this will lead to further "patches",
and not the revolutionary new system this list is preparing goals and
requirements for.

One of the requirements I see emerging from the partly conflicting goals
is flexibility. The protocol should be extensible, and new extensions
should be formally expressed and approved. In the protocol there should
be defined a minimum of testable requirements which the client must
support to be allowed to say that it supports e.g. signing of messages.

Just my two centimes.

Yours sincerely,
-- 
Victor Engmark
Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditar - What is said in latin,
sounds profound


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