Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: pv@eng.sun.COM (Peter Vanderbilt) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: re: Re: Is X.400 good for international mail? Message-ID: <9101141805.AA10190@polya.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 14 Jan 91 18:49:28 GMT Lines: 49 Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU hsnews@ICS.UCI.EDU > From: Kee Hinckley > We've already gone to some vendors and asked them about OIDS and the > response has been "What!?" In that case it seems like the best thing > for us to do is contact the company, ask them if they have one, if they > don't, ask if they mind if we generate one for them, and then notify > them of it when we have. Right on. > From: Peter Whittaker (P.W.) > OIDs should be a technical issue, but they quickly become a political issue > when you realize that your product's OIDs may have potential competitors > in them (i.e. if the IAB decides that 2.4.1001.45.76 is good for a LOTUS > spreadsheet, and 45 happens to belong to WIDGET, INC, who has given the IAB > proxy for OID assignment, LOTUS might say "But we're not part of WIDGET!"). So, what's the problem? An OID, once allocated, is a structureless token -- the fact that WIDGET helped out with the registration of a LOTUS thing doesn't imply any commercial relation whatsoever. It doesn't matter where an OID comes from so long as it's well defined. Should we hold up progress just so that ignorant people won't jump to invalid conclusions? > From: Einar Stefferud > I really don't think that all those companies are as ignorant as you > make them out to be. So, lets try an experiemnt with LOTUS by sending > them some mail to ask the primary question about when LOTUS will offer > an OID for the carriage of LOTUS product objets in X.400. OK, Stef. The clock is running. Let's see how long it takes. > So, I am not sure why LOTUS should be so all > fired interested in rushing to enbale you to use their OIDs in > non-existant X.400(88) systems. 88 systems are starting to pop up. Also, we may see a "chicken and the egg" problem here: one of the nicest things about the 88 protocols is the ability to carry data identified by OIDs. Are 88 systems going to catch on if no OIDs are defined? If 88 systems haven't caught on, will third parties bother getting an OID (especially if it costs 1000 bucks)? Pete