Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 12:37:54 -0800 From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com> Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@nsb.fv.com> writes: Right now we are basically having the remailing commands be mail header fields. But really people aren't supposed to just make up new fields like that. I think the "name space" of these fields is protected somewhat more than many other aspects of communication protocols on the net. If you start your header name with X-, then you are conforming that gross, ugly atrocity that is MIME. And yet, by using headers rather than TGUATIM, you help to preserve sanity and avoid that vast majority of MIME slime. Note that I'm not suggesting that MIME has no place. When you truly need to mix data types and you *want* the different parts to be easily processed by all, it makes perfect sense. Given the privacy goals of a remailing, MIME has only disadvantages. Is there precedent for adding service-by-mail functionality in this way? I am not completely comfortable with it. And as we think of new functionality and new commands they all have to get added at this top level, the same visibility and name space as "Subject", "From", and "To". So, do what you have to in C and C++-sans-namespaces, use a prefix. X-RM- could prefix the Remailer namespace. It's ugly, but compared to the alternative it is pure beauty. -- Rick Busdiecker <rfb@lehman.com> Please do not send electronic junk mail! Lehman Brothers Inc. 3 World Financial Center "The more laws and order are made prominent, the New York, NY 10285-1100 more thieves and robbers there will be." --Lao Tzu