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From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Domains: Multiple names OK? (really, decommissioning of nicknames)
Message-ID: <2528@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Sep-86 00:39:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2528
Posted: Tue Sep  9 00:39:27 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Sep-86 08:52:21 EDT
References: <566@mecc.UUCP> <2502@cbosgd.UUCP> <3920@ut-ngp.UUCP> <41448@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV> <3936@ut-ngp.UUCP> <1237@umd5>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh
Lines: 48

What it boils down to is this: we're moving from a flat name space ("seismo")
to a tree structured name space ("seismo.css.gov").  A flat name space is
easier for the users, as long as the user already knows the name to use.
But as the electronic world grows, flat name spaces become unmanageable.
Can you imagine the telephone model "Operator?  Get me John Smith."
being used on a worldwide telephone network?  There's a horrible ambiguity
problem (which "John Smith" do you want?) and a routing problem ("where
should I look to find John Smith's phone line?").  Expecting that every
host will always be callable with a single, flat, name like "seismo"
is impossible - you run into name collisions if you don't have a central
registry, and long delays and high costs for registering new hosts if
you do have a registry.  (There's also the problem that no one registry
is recognized by everybody: UUCP, BITNET, ARPANET, DEC, etc, all have
their registries, and their own bilbo's and vortex's.)

The price you pay is that you have to type "seismo.css.gov".  The benefit
you get is that now, using the same standard syntax, you can communicate
with the rest of the world, such as UUCP (cbosgd.ATT.COM) which you had
to kludge through a gateway address before.

Now, it is a good idea for a particular implementation to try to maintain
upward compatibility when making a change of this magnitude.  For example,
on UUCP, we encourage RFC976's addresses like rick@seismo.css.gov, but
we also support ihnp4!seismo!rick and rick@seismo.uucp for upward
compatibility.  (We don't promise that these will continue forever,
however.)  I would think that on the ARPANET, a mail system that
sees rick@seismo would assume that rick@seismo.ARPA was meant, but
evidently many implementations don't do this.

Those of you (both of you?) complaining about seismo.css.gov should
be grateful you aren't using an X.400 system.  (This is what the
phone companies will probably be forcing upon you within 10 years,
since it's now an international standard.)  You'll have to run some
nonstandard user interface and fill out a form, like this:
	Country		USA
	ADMD		AT&T
	PRMD		ARPA
	Organization	Center for Seismic Studies
	DDA=Machine	seismo
	PName:
		Surname		Adams
		Given Name	Rick

These names are considered so untypeable that everyone assumes you'll
get it somehow (probably off a piece of incoming mail) and save it
in an alias file.

	Mark