Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!greep@rand-unix.ARPA
From: greep@rand-unix.ARPA (Steve Tepper)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Names with spaces
Message-ID: <10940@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 22-May-85 21:57:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.10940
Posted: Wed May 22 21:57:39 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 21:25:27 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 33

I will seize the current fracas about spaces in names as an opportunity
to give vent to a long-standing gripe, which has to to with network
protocols in general but is a particularly sore point when it comes
to mail.  My complaint is that, given the lack of any network police,
the decision as to who has to change what to make it work with something
else is often more of a political question than a technical one.

Typically the scenario is something like this:  User Foo@FooHost wants to
send mail to Bar@BarHost.  Now it turns out that the person who maintains
the software used at BarHost (who likely doesn't even work there, unless
BarHost is a one-of-a-kind operating system) has decided to "improve" the
mail system in some way which is uncontestably at variance with the
standard, with the result that some mail breaks.  A cleanliness freak
would, justifiedly, state flatly that the burden is on either BarHost or
their software maintainer to get it fixed.  The reality is unfortunately
different.  It may be that Bar@Barhost is Foo's project sponsor, or someone
else of sufficient stature that Foo considers the ability to communicate
electronically with Bar a high-priority matter.  Complaining that the
problem is at BarHost may be morally satisfying but does not get the
message delivered, especially if the person who made the offending change
is obstinate and claims that his "improved" version is so obviously
superior that it is incumbent on the rest of the world to mimic his changes
until they become a de facto standard.  The outcome: some poor soul at
FooHost has to figure out what BarHost's mail server is now willing to
accept and hack up FooHost's mailer to accomodate it, without disrupting
other mail services from FooHost in the process.

I am exerting considerable restraint here by refraining from mentioning
the names of any guilty parties (and all the cases I dealt with were too
far in the past to be of any immediate concern), but I'm sure other people
have also found themselves in the unpleasant situation of being the
person who had to "fix" something to accomodate someone else's non-standard
"improvements".