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
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