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From: stef@nrtc-gremlin (Einar Stefferud)
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: DoD Representation at ISO
Message-ID: <5292.521356510@nrtc-gremlin.northrop.com>
Date: Thu, 10-Jul-86 03:11:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: nrtc-gre.5292.521356510
Posted: Thu Jul 10 03:11:14 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Jul-86 23:52:39 EDT
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I think it is important, though flaming is most always more fun, to see
if there is a useful middle road through this swamp.  Yes, it is a
swamp!  

Debbie is dead right about how we would be looking forward to the
glories of TELETEX as the mainstay of International EMail, if it had not
been for a small cadre of ARPANAUGHTS who banded together under the IFIP
flag to develop the basic UA/MTA Computer Mail Model which is the
underpinning of X.400.  

TELETEX is upscale TELEX, and its view of the world is that of a network
of terminals, which put ink on paper according to electric signals that
come in over a wire.  Its basic concept is that of remote printing.
TELETEX is your basic electronic stone and chisel.  Interesting, but ...

X.400 MHS adopted the ARPANET developed view of Net-Mail, with inter-
computer file-file text transfers as its basic mail transfer mechanism.
TELETEX and X.400 are basically orthoganal to each other.  X.400 has all
the right concepts in its foundations, but the architects did not all
understand how the parts should be assembled.  So, we have headers, but
they are not defined to be extensible, yet.  We have a hierarchical
addressing scheme, but it is tainted with a need for names to be route-
dependent.  If we are not very very careful, all the ughlyness of our
wonderful @%.! source rooted internet routing addresses will reappear
in X.400, complete with P2 envolope address munging in the MTA relays.  

One of the biggest problems I see, in trying to work with the ISO
TOP/MAP, et al, communities is to get them to understand that TCP/IP is
not the enemy.  This is not easy when all I can show them is ranting and
raving such as I see here, even from my friends who are working with me
in the TOP/MAP ISO community.  

So, how about lets find a way to get hte ISO documents from the NBS and
elsewhere, and make them available on SRI-NIC, after the fashion of
RFCs.  I bet that if we try to get this stuff and make it available, we
can get a better view of what is going on, and find a way to make
positive contributions to the future of the coming global internet.

Lets face it, the internet is what we should call a MegaTrend (following
the naming tradition of John Naisbitt).  The Internet is going to
happen, and X.400 is going to happen.  We are headed for an ISO Sea and
an X.400 Sea, and there is no way for any TCP/IP or SNA or DECNET
Islands to stop it from happening.  So lets get with it and help to make
it work for us.  My objective is to get the ISO and X.400 stuff to
working weel enough that the arguements over TCP/IP and SMTP/822 become
simply irrelevant.  I cannot think of a better fate for them.

Think on it - Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

Best - Stef

PS:  If you are interested in the "routing information in names"
problem, I will be pleased to send along a statement of the problem in
X.400 terms.   - /S