On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 02:39:56PM -0500, Phil Howard wrote:
| So the question is, how will one use SPF without XML if things are being
| merged with Microsoft's Caller-ID system? What will be the implications
| of leaving out XML and thus any parts that depend on it? Hint: I won't
| be running on a Microsoft OS.
Backward compatibility with the estimated 14,000 to 33,000 domains
that have existing SPF records means that for the foreseeable future,
people who don't like XML for whatever reason can publish new records
in the SPF TXT format.
Speaking personally, I plan to switch to the XML format only when I
need to express something that can't be expressed in TXT and can be
expressed in XML.
Also, I believe we're going to create a new record type for the XML
version of the record. So that means the SPF TXT record is the
short-term rollout, and the MARID XML record will roll out when the
new RRtype has been allocated, servers have been upgraded, and the XML
details have been hammered out.
But who knows what the future will bring ... for instance, if it turns
out that the majority of implementors would rather write an XML parser
than an SPFv1 parser, maybe things will swing in that direction.
We're at the point where the market can decide.