Re: whois++ response formats...

["Judith E. Grass" <[e-mail]>]

>>	Here are the response formats I am using for responses that
>>	don't involve templates -- culled from the other whois++
>>	implementations.  Let me know if you disagree strongly with
>>	any of this stuff :-)

>>	  version
>>	  # FULL 1
>>	   Version: LUT version 0.0
>>	  # END

		.. more stuff follows ...

I am concerned with writing programs that generate directory queries and then
manipulate the results of the queries.  I don't see how this kind of formatting
helps me parse the *information* being returned.. 

for instance:  is this string of characters a given name?  a surname? is this
a street number? a phone number? a postal code?   It's usually easy for
a human reader to do this, but it needs to be possible for a program as well.

The version, commands and constraints formatting is all OK, but it
still doesn't get at representing the directory information in such a way
that regardless of how your database maintains it, I can manipulate it
and format it the way my user wants to see it.

Tag, value pairs would be fine (is that what you are proposing) so long as 
we can all agree on the tags.  In any case, given either tags or
a rigid enough response syntax, I can filter responses to show them any 
way I want them.

		-- Judy Grass, CNRI