Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!twg.com!david
From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Is '@' ever needed?
Keywords: '%'
Message-ID: <9133@gollum.twg.com>
Date: 20 Jun 91 04:19:07 GMT
References: <797@minya.UUCP>
Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 50

In article <797@minya.UUCP> jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes:
>This may sound silly, but I  recently  realized,  and  testing  on  an
>assortment  of machines has so far verified, that there seems to be no
>reason to ever use '@' in a mail address.   If  you  always  use  '%',
>mailers  that  I've tested all seem to accept it and convert it to '@'
>when necessary.  I'm wondering if this really works everywhere.

Yes this does sound silly.  However, having read many of your postings
in the past I realize you're not asking this question in jest.

If anything should go away it is the `%' since

	-- `@' is more expressive (read it as `at')
	-- the `%' was, and always has been (except for JANET),
	   a hack.

At any rate.. The %-hack notation is not gauranteed to work
everywhere.  After all it is in the local-part of the address
and is not supposed to be looked at except at the system specified
by the domain-part of the address.  Therefore the meaning of
the %-hack is not knowable anywhere except at that site.

I've run across at least one place where `%' is used in the
local-part and with different semantics than the %-hack.  I believe
this is the gateway for MCIMAIL.COM ... whichever gateway this
is, it is translating X.400 addresses into

S=surname%G=given%OU=Org-Unit%O=Org%PRMD=xxx%ADMD=xxx%C=xx@gateway.dom

Decoded a bit ... each portion of this is an attribute in an
X.400 address and using our friend, the `%', as a separator.

>This isn't entirely trivial. I've had some trouble at times explaining
>to  novice  users  what  the  rules for email addresses are.  They are
>mostly unbelieving at the complexity of it all.  ("Why can't they just
>...?") I've been trying to find simple ways of explaining it.

Funny.  I've been getting along with user@dom.ain for years and
rarely having to use funky routing stuff like '!' and '::' and etc.
I do worry when someone is so backwards to use `@host.uucp' in
their header but it seems to get through anyway.  (The magic
of pathalias I assume..)

	David

-- 
<- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com>
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