Re: [idn] Re: 7 bits forever!

["Edmon Chung" <edmon@neteka.com>]

I think the issue here is how we can plan a better transition than what we
have done for SMTP.
That is, if we start thinking about "8+ everywhere" instead of "ACE
everywhere" scenario, then how we can get there from here. That is the
question for the IDN group I believe.
Edmon

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Stracke" <jstracke@incentivesystems.com>
To: <ietf@ietf.org>
Cc: <idn@ops.ietf.org>; <ietf-smtp@imc.org>; <owner-ietf@ietf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: [idn] Re: 7 bits forever!


> D. J. Bernstein wrote:
>
> >It is not reasonable to demand that this
> >7-bit garbage be allowed to remain on the network forever, at the
> >expense of all future implementors and users.
>
> OK, you're obviously in a better position than I am to appreciate the cost
> to implementors.  But users? Suppose you could streamline qmail by
> dropping support for talking to 7-bit servers.  How do you convince a
> postmaster to install it? The bandwidth cost of having to use 7-bit
> encoding is real, but small; the cost of losing connectivity to sites is
> potentially high.  Worse, it's almost impossible to put an upper bound on
> the cost of lost connectivity.  For a company, it could mean losing
> messages (and sales) from important customers; businesses have failed over
> such things.
>
> For commercial implementors, it's a no-brainer: dropping 7-bit support
> will lose customers, so don't do it.  For open-source implementors such as
> yourself, naturally, things are less clear-cut.
>
> /==============================================================\
> |John Stracke                    |Principal Engineer           |
> |jstracke@incentivesystems.com   |Incentive Systems, Inc.      |
> |http://www.incentivesystems.com |My opinions are my own.      |
> |==============================================================|
> |"This [OLE] isn't an API, this is a shaggy dog story in C!" --|
> |Unknown                                                       |
> \==============================================================/
>
>