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Re: The case for XML

2004-01-21 14:50:09

The cons are fairly obvious

        * It is a change
        * The result is more verbose
        * Network administrators are not familiar (Human readability issues)
        * It is not the way DNS does things

And it requires an extra protocol adding to the complexity to develop SPF-aware products, and sounds like it might require a switch from UDP/DNS to TCP/HTTP.

The pro's need a bit of explanation

        * Re-use of existing parser infrastructure

This is an extremely minor consideration.

        * Programmers are more familiar (Human readability issues)

Not necessarily an issue. While I'm sure that more programmers are familiar with XML than SPF, it adds an additional requirement to programmers of SPF-aware applications.

        * It is the way any DNS replacement will do things.

"It is" here should be "It may be". I've never heard of any suggestions for DNS replacements that use XML. And DNS is something I have a *lot* of experience with. If you're talking about plans for something 5-10 years from now, that's a different story. In that case, SPF v2 can have XML.

So to me, it sounds like the main advantages of XML are extensibility and politics.

It would be really useful if lurkers from the big filtering companies could
chime in here. Yes we know you are out there.

You'll need to be more specific. Are you referring to the new big players that just started developing (or buying out) anti-spam software in the past year or so, or the companies that have been around for years that truly understand spam control?

Anti-spam software has traditional been the domain of small companies. The last thing that I want to see is big players jumping in and taking over in a way that hurts the consumers. Maybe XML is the way to go.

Just for the record, we started developing and selling anti-spam software in 1997, and have anti-spam software that is running on mailservers covering 100,000s of domains. Are we a major player? I wouldn't think of suggesting it. But does my company have a much better understanding of spammers (how they operate, what they are likely to do in the future, etc.) than the major players that just jumped aboard? I certainly would say so.

In our case, we would definitely give SPF a much lower priority if it required XML. There are too many other items on the "to do" list to bother with having someone delve into XML or work on licensing an XML parser.
                                                      -Scott

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