Re: [secdir] secdir review of draft-crocker-email-arch-11

[Dave CROCKER <[e-mail]>]

Patrick Cain wrote:
> 2. The document uses a bunch of traditional x.400 messaging terms (e.g., MHS,
> MTA, MUA) to describe the SMTP mail system. I know it's picky, but if we're
> going to write a document that uses x.400 terms we may want to cite that work
> in an informal reference.


Patrick,

Thanks for the review.

Leaving out x.400 references wasn't an accident, but it also wasn't obvious
which way to go.  For one thing, in email presentations, I sometimes ask who has
not heard of x.400 and it has become a substantial number.  (And, for reference,
we developed the original UA/MTA model before X.400, through IFIP WG 6.5.)

Perhaps more substantive is the potential for confusing the reading:  email-arch
provides its own definitions, and they are not the same as X.400's.  This is
especially true for ADMD.  (It's a little bit like the discomfort of trying to
be precisely use the actual ISO definitions of the 7 layers, when talking about
IETF networking protocols.  Approximation works well; precision doesn't.)

Nonetheless, yeah, it probably makes sense to give a nod to that history.

I suggest simply adding a citation to the first reference to UA/MTA in email-arch:

> 1.1. History
> 
> The first standardized architecture for networked email specified a simple
> split between the user world, in the form of Mail User Agents (MUA), and the
> transfer world, in the form of the Mail Handling Service (MHS), which is
> composed of Mail Transfer Agents (MTA).*[RFC1506]* The MHS accepts a message from one
> User and delivers it to one or more other users, creating a virtual
> MUA-to-MUA exchange environment.


[RFC1506]  Houttuin, J., A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X.400 and Internet
            Mail , August 1993


The alternative is:

[X400]  Recommendation F.400/X.400 (06/99), ITU-T,
         <http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-F.400-199906-I/en>

but I prefer the 1506 because it cites IFIP wg6.5 and has some historical 
discussion.

Does that work for you?


d/

-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net