home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Internet Info 1997 December
/
Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso
/
ietf
/
smtpext
/
smtpext-minutes-90dec.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-17
|
4KB
|
104 lines
CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
Reported by Greg Vaudreuil/CNRI
SMTPEXT Minutes
This meeting began as a Birds of a Feather session called by Phill Gross
(CNRI) to discuss two SMTP related proposals. Jan Michael Rynning
(NORDUnet) and Johnny Eriksson (NORDUnet), participating by telephone,
presented a method for transmitting eight bit character sets over SMTP.
A proposal for a standard List-Service syntax for the Internet was made
by Greg Vaudreuil (CNRI). The discussion broadened a bit and resulted in
the formation of a Working Group to consider enhancements to SMTP and
RFC 822 to allow for body parts.
Rynning's and Eriksson's proposal suggested a mechanism to transmit 8
bit character sets through SMTP. The proposal consisted of:
o Eliminating the 7bit restriction in SMTP, and in cases where 8 bit
SMTP is not implemented,
o Proposing a 7 bit encoding for non-8 bit systems called TEX-HEX.
TEX-HEX is a mixture of plain ASCII TEXT and HEX encoded
characters.
The group found the proposal interesting, but primarily as a starting
point for a re-examination of several SMTP issues. There was a
consensus that the group should work to eliminate the 7 bit and 1000
character per line restrictions in SMTP. This will allow easier sending
of binary files. Tom Kessler (SUN) convinced the group that there were
only minor code changes required for sendmail to accept 8 bit ASCII.
Kessler further volunteered to author a document describing the changes
to the SMTP protocol. A command ``EBIT'' was proposed in the document
by Rynning and Eriksson to identify new mailers. The group agreed that
this extension should be considered for SMTP. An alternate HELO command
could be defined to query a mailer for 8 bit compatibility, such as
HELO8.
The Working Group looked at RFC 1154 for defining encodings of specific
body parts. Some felt that the document has short-comings in not
differentiating between content and the encoding scheme. Greg Vaudreuil
took an action to contact the author to inquire about the state of that
document. The Working Group felt that establishing body parts for 822
mail would be a good thing. An outstanding issue remained concerning
the interaction between the various encoding schemes as the 7 or 8 bit
transmission systems.
1
Rynning and Eriksson took an action to re-write their proposal for
TEX-HEX as a specific encoding and body part to be used with the
encoding document.
John Veizades (Apple) stopped in to brief the group about Unicos, a
universal text encoding scheme developed at Zerox and Apple. This
scheme used two octets to represent all known characters.
Chris Myers (WashU) explained the list service offered by Washington
University, and explained many of the features of Bitnet's ListServ.
Myers took an action to distribute the listserv document to those in the
group who had an interest. The group did not come to a consensus on
whether to pursue this topic at this time.
Actions
Kessler Write a document amending RFC 821 to eliminate the
line length restriction and the 7 bit restriction.
Vaudreuil Determine the state of RFC 1154, and encourage the
author to join in this effort.
Eriksson/Rynning Rewrite the TEX HEX encoding document as a specific
instance of an RFC 1154 body part.
Attendees
Robert Braden braden@venera.isi.edu
Cyrus Chow cchow@orion.arc.nasa.gov
Johnny Eriksson bygg@sunet.se
Phillip Gross pgross@nri.reston.va.us
Russell Hobby rdhobby@ucdavis.edu
Tom Kessler kessler@sun.com
Chris Myers chris@wugate.wustl.edu
Brad Parker brad@cayman.com
Michael Roberts roberts@educom.edu
Jan Michael Rynning jmr@nada.kth.se
Bernhard Stockman boss@sunet.se
Dean Throop throop@dg-rtp.dg.com
Gregory Vaudreuil gvaudre@nri.reston.va.us
David Zimmerman dpz@dimacs.rutgers.edu
2