Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!husc6!bbn!bbn.com!rsalz From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: this might be getting out of hand... Message-ID: <1028@fig.bbn.com> Date: 19 Aug 88 16:14:13 GMT References: <3670@bsu-cs.UUCP> <4381@umix.cc.umich.edu> <3678@bsu-cs.UUCP> Organization: BBN Systems and Technologies, Inc. Lines: 26 >Actually, the domain system is really just an addressing scheme and not >a name service. This is not true. It really is a very flexible naming service. Check out, e.g., what the MIT Athena people did -- a few hacks to bind, and presto! Naming services for printers, people, etc. >In any case, there's no need for a.b.c.d.e to be known to anybody >except b.c.d.e, except as an optimization. Not true. First, when do you stop the left-most removal? Your statement requires that there be a machine b.c.d.e; what about c.d.e and d.e and plain old e? Should someone who wants to reach me on my workstation, rsalz@fig.bbn.com, just send all their mail to the non-existant "com" machine? Second error, what's bad about the optimization? With caching, and proper data entries, the domain sytem is a powerful, effective distributed naming database. If foo.bar.com wants to ftp with zap.baz.edu, then those two machines -- if both are on the Internet -- should be talking directly, not going through bar.com and baz.edu. Especially when bar.com and baz.edu need not exist! Third error, which is implied in my previous paragraph: the name system is not just used for email, but for other things like TELNET and FTP... /rich$alz -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net.