Re: Update of the MIME-MHS Specs

["Carl S. Gutekunst" <[e-mail]>]

>IANA has been publishing a list of identifiers for use in MIME.

Ah!  I've falled out of date, then.  It's in ftp.isi.edu:in-notes/media-types.
The new multipart types are interesting.

>Said subtypes include many many interesting data types, including (I believe)
>all the examples you give and more.

Actually, most of them are not, and for good reason: they need to be defined
by the people who own them, e.g., Microsoft, Word Perfect, et al.  But that's
going to be slow in coming -- see below.

>If it is already happening then why does it need to become more complicated
>by dragging in another organization into the picture?

Because it's a big win for the Internet and MIME.

It clearly better serves E-Mail end users if X.400 BP15 and MIME recognize a
similar set of application types.  I'd hope there is no disagreement here.
Filters, user interfaces, and gateways all become simpler to implement and
manage.

This will happen faster and better with EMA and IETF working together.  No, I
am not kidding.  Like the Internet, the EMA is very end-user oriented, and has
a good reputation of getting things done.   But the end-user base served by
EMA is completely different from that of IETF:  business, software houses, and
large corporations.  Most of these concerns are both excited and frightened by
the Internet.  They want to get involved, are willing to spend research money,
are willing to make technology available, but they don't know how or where.
EMA and IETF working together would greatly boost the credibility of IETF with
the business community, making them far more willing to get behind MIME.

Try listing all the companies with more than 200 employees that have made a
committment to MIME.  *All* the companies, not just software developers.  You
can put IBM right at top, of course, but where is everyone else?  They are
waiting for something to happen, that's where.  EMA end IETF working together
could be that something.

Need specifics?  At least one Very Big Software Company has been emphatic that
they will register no types for anything -- nor allow anyone else to register
types for them -- until they can do it once for both X.400 and MIME.  If they
can do it only for one, it will be X.400, but that is considered a last
resort.  There are forces in that company that could switch the focus from
X.400 to MIME, but since X.400 was there first, the MIME camp has to
demonstrate that they can do the job better.  The credibility gained by the
IETF and EMA joining forces would be a very strong push for them.

Does Word Perfect Corporation know that someone is defining MIME content types
for their data formats?  Word Perfect's prorprietary E-mail system preserves
external data references and OLEs, but the current MIME proposal does not.  So
what is Word Perfect going to do when they implement their own MIME gateway?
Why, something proprietary and incompatible, of course.

We've *got* to get the different camps working together, or nothing is going
to interoperate.

<csg>