Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!decwrl!sun!gnu
From: gnu@sun.UUCP (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Uniqueness of Names
Message-ID: <354@sun.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Nov-83 05:43:54 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.354
Posted: Fri Nov 18 05:43:54 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Nov-83 04:10:08 EST
References: shark.107
Lines: 24


	While the syntax is poor, remember that the current uucp source routed
	syntax, and the practise of giving your "address" relative to a well
	known "host" has in fact already provided us with a domain facility
	similar to what the ARPAnet is currently experimenting with.

That's a translation I'd never thought of:

	decvax!microsoft!sco!root
		--> root@sco.microsoft.decvax.uucp

It works!

This also points up a possible way around the "to route or not to route"
question for uucp sites.  While there is no guarantee that "sco" is The
Santa Cruz Operation, it IS true that "sco.microsoft.decvax.uucp" is them.
Since most horribly routed mail is news replies, it probably follows very
predictable paths.  We can convert a known horrible path to a known good
path, rather than translating site names out of context.  For example,
you might transform that path to "sco.ihnp4.uucp" since you could know that
the two were equivalent but this one is faster.

This domain syntax is even in the grand Arpa tradition of tying the domain
name to the physical link involved...