Encoding structured data

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

Folks,

Since the work is a direct outgrowth of the Mime effort, I thought
it worth forwarding the enclosed to these two discussion lists.
I'll be setting up an email list, shortly, assuming there is
interest in pursuing this within the IETF.

Comments on the two proposals are eagerly sought.

(for reference, PCI is a customer of the STIF encoding
scheme.)

Dave

------- Forwarded Messages

Date:    Thu, 10 Jun 93 10:27:48 EDT
To:      IETF-Announce:;@IETF.CNRI.Reston.VA.US
From:    [e-mail]
Subject: ID ACTION:draft-crocker-pci-00.txt, .ps
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; Boundary="NextPart"
Reply-To: [e-mail]
X-Orig-Sender: [e-mail]

- --NextPart

A New Internet Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts 
directories.                                                          

       Title     : Encoding for Personal Contact Information (PCI)    
       Author(s) : D. Crocker
       Filename  : draft-crocker-pci-00.txt, .ps
       Pages     : 10

Extensive use of Internet electronic mail demonstrates a need to be 
able to communicate various descriptive information about 
participants.  The information ranges from telephone and postal 
addressing, to an indication of the media supported by their 
electronic mail and information processing environment.  This 
specification provides a basis for encoding such  "PCI" business card 
information by using the STIF [CROC93] syntax.               

A MIME Content sub-type is defined for carriage of PCI information.          

Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP.  Login with the	
username "anonymous" and password "guest".  After logging in,
Type "cd internet-drafts".
     "get draft-crocker-pci-00.txt".
 Or 
     "get draft-crocker-pci-00.ps".
 
Internet-Drafts directories are located at:	
	                                                
     o  East Coast (US)                          
        Address:  ds.internic.net (198.49.45.10)	
	                                                
     o  West Coast (US)                          
        Address:  ftp.nisc.sri.com (192.33.33.22)
							
     o  Pacific Rim                              
        Address:  munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21)	
	                                                
     o  Europe                                   
        Address:  nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)	
	                                                
Internet-Drafts are also available by mail.	
	                                                
Send a message to:  [e-mail]. In the body type: 
     "SEND draft-crocker-pci-00.txt".
 Or 
     "SEND draft-crocker-pci-00.ps".
							
For questions, please mail to [e-mail].
							

Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant Mail Reader 
implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version
of the Internet Draft.

- --NextPart
Content-Type: Multipart/Alternative; Boundary="OtherAccess"

- --OtherAccess
Content-Type:  Message/External-body;
        access-type="mail-server";
        server="[e-mail]"

Content-Type: text/plain

SEND draft-crocker-pci-00.txt

- --OtherAccess
Content-Type:   Message/External-body;
        name="draft-crocker-pci-00.txt";
        site="ds.internic.net";
        access-type="anon-ftp";
        directory="internet-drafts"

Content-Type: text/plain

- --OtherAccess--

- --NextPart--

------- Message 2

Date:    Thu, 10 Jun 93 10:32:10 EDT
To:      IETF-Announce:;@IETF.CNRI.Reston.VA.US
From:    [e-mail]
Subject: ID ACTION:draft-crocker-stif-00.txt, .ps
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; Boundary="NextPart"
Reply-To: [e-mail]
X-Orig-Sender: [e-mail]

- --NextPart

A New Internet Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts 
directories.                                                          

       Title     : Structured Text Interchange Format (STIF)          
       Author(s) : D. Crocker
       Filename  : draft-crocker-stif-00.txt, .ps
       Pages     : 13

Various applications need to exchange structured information, such as 
business-card contact information, bibliographic citations, and 
structured forms and replies.  ASN.1 [ISO87] is a commonly accepted 
framework for producing binary encoding of information.  However, 
Internet data exchanges often take place in a textual environment, 
such as electronic mail.  In these cases, it would be helpful to have 
conventions for encoding structured information so that it is entirely
legible as text, but sufficiently structured to allow machine 
processing.  This document specifies Structured Text Interchange 
Format (STIF), a syntax for encoding attribute/value pairs.  The pairs
can be collected into multi-part sequences and nested sub-lists.  The 
syntax provides for user-defined extensions and for references to data
from within sequences and sub-lists.  While STIF can be generally 
compared with ASN.1/BER, it attempts much simpler encoding.  In 
particular, it is strictly text-based and it does not provide for 
specification of a value's data type.                                 

Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP.  Login with the	
username "anonymous" and password "guest".  After logging in,
Type "cd internet-drafts".
     "get draft-crocker-stif-00.txt".
 Or 
     "get draft-crocker-stif-00.ps".
 
Internet-Drafts directories are located at:	
	                                                
     o  East Coast (US)                          
        Address:  ds.internic.net (198.49.45.10)	
	                                                
     o  West Coast (US)                          
        Address:  ftp.nisc.sri.com (192.33.33.22)
							
     o  Pacific Rim                              
        Address:  munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21)	
	                                                
     o  Europe                                   
        Address:  nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)	
	                                                
Internet-Drafts are also available by mail.	
	                                                
Send a message to:  [e-mail]. In the body type: 
     "SEND draft-crocker-stif-00.txt".
 Or 
     "SEND draft-crocker-stif-00.ps".
							
For questions, please mail to [e-mail].
							

Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant Mail Reader 
implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version
of the Internet Draft.

- --NextPart
Content-Type: Multipart/Alternative; Boundary="OtherAccess"

- --OtherAccess
Content-Type:  Message/External-body;
        access-type="mail-server";
        server="[e-mail]"

Content-Type: text/plain

SEND draft-crocker-stif-00.txt

- --OtherAccess
Content-Type:   Message/External-body;
        name="draft-crocker-stif-00.txt";
        site="ds.internic.net";
        access-type="anon-ftp";
        directory="internet-drafts"

Content-Type: text/plain

- --OtherAccess--

- --NextPart--

------- End of Forwarded Messages