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RE: Using SPF w/o XML

2004-05-26 15:18:41
"Ryan Malayter" <rmalayter(_at_)bai(_dot_)org> wrote:

What does your OS choice have to do with anything? XML is an open,
patent-free standard, and has hundreds (thousands?) of different
implementations on Linux, BSD, etc.

This reminds me of an email signature block I once saw:

"You are in a twisty maze of Java virtual machines, all subtly
different."

Or are you so afraid of anything having to do with Microsoft that you
won't use XML just because they like it?

My dislike for XML is not connected in any way with Microsoft.

Now, if you don't want to use the XML portions of the new SPF that's
your prerogative, but you will eventually be left behind. XML is the de
facto standard data interchange format of the modern internet, and the
whole point of using XML for SPF is so that implementers don't have to
write an SPFv1 parser, they just use whatever XML parser they like. 

No doubt a large number of companies have embraced XML for all sorts
of reasons.  But I would imagine that, of the total amount of data
which flows across the internet in all protocols, the amount which is
expressed in XML is vanishingly small.  Certainly no existing part of
the DNS and SMTP protocols require the use of XML.  I don't see any
XML on www.amazon.com or www.ebay.com or www.imdb.org.

Even granting that a lot of people use XML for a lot of things and
that parsers are widely available, what positive reason is there to
use it for this particular application when far simpler solutions are
available?                                       -- George Mitchell


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