Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!BBN.COM!ddeutsch
From: ddeutsch@BBN.COM (Debbie Deutsch)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso
Subject: Re: ASN.1
Message-ID: <9010012124.AA16228@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 1 Oct 90 14:29:59 GMT
References: <59685@bbn.BBN.COM>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 20

Okay, here is the story.

The report to which you refer was a piece of work we did for the
National Bureau of Standards (now NIST), which was working on the
adoption of email standards that could be used by the federal
government.  When they started down that path there were no commercial
standards organizations working in that area, either on a national or
international basis, nor were there any plans for such activity.  That
changed some time after the NBS effort got going.

As a result, the BBN report and the work that went into it predated
the CCITT effort that produced X.409, which later evolved into ASN.1.
Doug Steedman was one of the authors of X.409 (1984), as were a number
of other people including myself.  For example, Jim White made many
major contributions, especially in the area of notation.  While X.409
did draw upon the work we did here, there are some important
differences too.  I could go into them, but it all seems rather moot
now :).

Debbie Deutsch