Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway
From: david@TWG.COM (David Herron)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400
Subject: Re: Printable format (was: Re: ISO/CCITT meeting report)
Message-ID: <9008161047.aa01196@Obelix.TWG.COM>
Date: 16 Aug 90 18:07:36 GMT
Lines: 28
Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU
In-reply-to: Your message of Thu, 16 Aug 90 17:36:00 +0200.
             <9008161536.AA21141@piring.cwi.nl>

>>	THEORETISCHE-INFORMATIK.NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN.XYZTH-SCHILDA.DBP.DE
>Those poor people shouldn't even be able to send mail to
>or get mail from the Internet, since the secondary and
>all lower subdomains violate RFC920 (>12 chars)....

Here is one of the major problems (as well as strengths) of the rfc-822
address scheme with domain-ing.

This reliance on short mnemonic strings of characters to refer to
entities doesn't scale up very well.  Think about the kind of mess we'd
have if that system were to be used for everybody in the world.  That's
the level of addressability we're capable of approaching -- if large parts
of the worlds organizations get into networking & e-mail interchange.

`david@twg.com' just isn't a very good identifier.  I happen to like
it, and that is what my business card says.  But there's also about 7-8
other `david's in the company and, in fact, I'm the newest one.  Furthermore
there are other companies around whose initials could be "TWG".  For instance
a computer company in Vancouver BC (I think) has the "TWG" name over in
UUCP-land all to themselves .. with some potential confusion in some peoples
minds.

The neat thing about mnemonics is that they mean different things
to different people...

The days of the RFC-822 address format are numbered..

	David