Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!karl_kleinpaste From: karl_kleinpaste@cis.ohio-state.edu Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Imminent death of UUCP Zone predicted Message-ID: Date: 17 Jul 90 18:12:57 GMT References: Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: Ohio State Computer Science Lines: 27 Anselmo-Ed@cs.yale.edu writes: The phone system was/is one of Peter Honeyman's pet examples of what *isn`t* an absolute address. E.g. my work number (203) 432-1254. Within Yale, you only have to dial the last 5 numbers (the seven digit version won't work). From many offices, you'll have to dial "9" to get an outside line (i.e. the number is relative to "the outside world"). From many countries, you'll have to dial a country code followed by the number (the number is relative to the US phone system). And so on .... All you're defining is the number of domain qualifiers needed. Around here, it is possible to write mail to "karl" if you're within this department; "karl@cis" if you're within OSU and have a mailer config that will attempt partial domain matches; "karl@cis.ohio-state.edu" if you're outside the domain entirely. Similarly, "last N digits" is within your local phone system; xxx-yyyy is within your area code; aaa-xxx-yyyy is within (approximately?) North America; cc-aaa-xxx-yyyy if you're trying to address another country. Looks domainist to me -- universal naming with abbreviations allowed when operating within the local domain. The extent of relativity in the address in both cases is merely defining the part of the address that isn't "oneself." --karl