Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!CS.UCLA.EDU!wales From: wales@CS.UCLA.EDU (Rich Wales) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: CS top-level domain and its impact on the UK? Message-ID: <900710.020323z.00921.wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu> Date: 10 Jul 90 02:03:23 GMT References: <9007092308.AA03812@bel.isi.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: inet Organization: The Internet Lines: 28 Regarding Jon Postel's message to the NAMEDROPPERS list: The country codes are to be taken from the list in ISO-3166 which was set up in 1981. In that list the two letter code for Czechoslovakia is CS. As I understand it, many people in the UK (where they use "big-endian" domain names that start with the top level) are concerned about what will happen if "CS" does become a top-level domain -- since this will presumably break the heuristics their gateways use to determine if a domain name needs to be reversed. (For example, consider a certain university in the US, whose computer science department uses the domain name "CS.UCLA.EDU". How are the UK mail relays going to know that this is not in fact a reverse-ordered form of a Czechoslovakian domain name "EDU.UCLA.CS"? What's the current thinking on this? I suppose someone could try and suggest that everyone help the UK out by abandoning the use of "CS" as a bottom-level domain -- but, realistically, this is unlikely to occur. Is this the straw that is going to break the back of the UK's domain name ordering, and force them to switch to "bottom-level-first" now, rather than try to "stick it out" until X.400 takes over the world? -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683 "This is yet another example of how our actions have random results."