Thanks, Steve--I may indeed have the wrong impression of how MIME/PEM has
been developed, by virtue of being a passive observer on this list until
just after this past IETF meeting.
However, your remarks about RFC 1421 trouble me some. If RFC 1421 is no
longer viewed as acceptable by this group, perhaps it should be withdrawn.
If it is not to be withdrawn, I still fail to see why MIME/PEM should not be
advanced to proposed as well. As I said last week, I think that if we try
to wait for a proposal that satisfies everyone's desires, we will be here
forever, and nothing would get built (which is a result that is completely
counter to the goals of the IETF, however much it might resemble an ISO
or IEEE working group).
If this working group has goals that are not reflected in its charter, I at
least would like someone to summarize them. I entered this discussion with
the impression (confirmed by attending the IETF meeting that Jeff supervised)
that the issue at hand was representing the RFC1421's algorithms and policies
in a way that co-exists with MIME. As such, I believe that the current
proposal succeeds, and has the further advantage of also supporting (without
modification to the representation) alternative policies that are currently
under discussion. If these impressions are wrong, I'd appreciate a
description of what the issues currently on the table actually are.
Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation