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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ll-xn!adelie!minya!jc
From: jc@minya.UUCP (jc)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: routing in the user agent
Message-ID: <279@minya.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Oct-87 16:08:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: minya.279
Posted: Sat Oct 10 16:08:31 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 19:18:46 EDT
Organization: home
Lines: 27
Keywords: bounced mail, rerouting

> first, I see what the mail message (or article) has for a path - then
> I try pathalias.  I also check whether the system is on Arpanet...  all
> by hand.
> It would be nice to have this done automatically - IF I could tell the
> mailer, "no, please don't send it that way - it bounced the last time."

You know, there's an elegant solution to this sort of problem, exemplified
by the way that Prolog resolves things.  What is needed is a user agent
that will first try what it thinks is a "best" path, and then, when that
fails, can be told "try again, with the next-best path".  This could be
repeated until a good path is found, which could then be made the "best"
path for the next time.

It might be a good idea if the "try again" command could accept a parameter,
which would be advise from the user about a path (fragment) to include (or
reject) in generating the next path.  This would be a simply way for a user
to select for/against a given site or link.

It's not clear that this should be heavily automated; it could easily end
up with a message bouncing around the net for years looking for a path.
You'd probably want to tell the user about each failure, and hold the
failed mail until told what to do with it.

Just a few thoughts; let me know what's wrong with them. (;-)

-- 
	John Chambers <{adelie,ima,maynard}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)