Re: Comments on output format (was Re: Multiple languages)
dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov Mon, 29 March 1993 17:41 UTC
Received: from aggie.ucdavis.edu by ucdavis.ucdavis.edu (5.61/UCD2.04) id AA00786; Mon, 29 Mar 93 09:41:59 -0800
Received: from ucdavis.ucdavis.edu by aggie.ucdavis.edu (5.61/UCD2.04) id AA04089; Mon, 29 Mar 93 09:11:35 -0800
Received: by ucdavis.ucdavis.edu (5.61/UCD2.04) id AA29268; Mon, 29 Mar 93 09:02:02 -0800
Sender: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Received: from blacks.jpl.nasa.gov by ucdavis.ucdavis.edu (5.61/UCD2.04) id AA28890; Mon, 29 Mar 93 08:51:27 -0800
Received: from localhost by blacks.jpl.nasa.gov (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA27090; Sun, 28 Mar 93 16:27:47 PST
Message-Id: <9303290027.AA27090@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: Peter Deutsch <peterd@bunyip.com>
Cc: dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov, Mark Prior <mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au>, ietf-wnils@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu, dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov
Subject: Re: Comments on output format (was Re: Multiple languages)
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 25 Mar 93 23:28:37 EST." <9303260428.AA14872@expresso.bunyip.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1993 16:27:46 -0800
From: dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov
Peter Deutsch <peterd@bunyip.com> writes: >On the up side, it looks like Bunyip will now have an >employee assigned to work on the WHOIS++ server ... That's good news! About returning just a specified subset of all fields: I wrote >> I was planning on searching thru the output of the "full" record, but >> you're right, it might be nice to specify returning just one field. >> The ph directory service supports this capability, e.g. >> query jones return email Peter Deutsch <peterd@bunyip.com> writes: >My cut on this, now we have what I think is a viable authentication mechanism, >is to add a "view" capability, which would allow the operator to define >multiple views onto a single template. Wait a minute- I need to be able to use the same query for any whois++ server when my automatic client looks up a person's e-mail address. Letting different operators define various 'views' may be great, but unless a minimal view giving e-mail address and personal name is made mandatory, it doesn't sound like this will meet my needs. >I would also say that the site admin should be free to define any view, >with a naming syntax along the lines of "<templatename>.<viewname>"... >As usual, standardization would be of use here... Standardization would be essential, as I argued above. >At the same time, support for views would to me certainly >be an optional feature... Whoops, looks like I can't depend on 'views' at all! If they are to be any use for me, at least support for an "email-info" view must be mandatory, not optional. About language... unless all servers can accept commands *and* deliver answers in a universally supported language (e.g. English), my automated client will be difficult if not impossible to write. Is there any consensus on how or whether to require support for English? About output format... >the currently documented output format is pretty ugly, to say the least. That's for sure. Was the 'ph' style response, in which each line of the output is prefixed with a numerical code, considered when you guys designed whois++? I suspect it would be a whole lot easier to parse. - Dan Kegel (dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov) (author of Horton, an automated whois-database-builder for finger/smtp systems)