[ih] DNS History

[Craig Partridge]

> First, in terms of the RFC system, where are the comments themselves?  Were
> they hard-copies that no longer exist, or mailing lists that have been
> tucked away somewhere?  Is there any correspondence left (for DNS related
> RFCs) or has it all been lost?

There was no formal comment system (nor is there now).  But there were lots
of comments on drafts on various mailing lists.   For DNS issues the
archives of the namedroppers list is probably your best place
(http://psg.com/lists/namedroppers and kudos to Randy Bush for bringing it
up)

> Second, does anyone have or know where to find details about the
> debates/conversations that took place leading up to RFC 1591 and what
> appears to be a "compromise" between generic and ccTLDs?

RFC 1591 is awfully late -- most key technical issues, as I recall, were
determined when RFC973 came out.

> Third, it is not entirely clear to me exactly why DNS was engineered in
> place of X.500.  It is my understanding at this early point in my research
> that OSI standards seemed inevitable at one point, and sources have told me
> that DNS was designed to get something out the door quickly (presumably
> something that *wasn't* X.500).  Was X.500 simply based on an old paradigm
> (white pages / old telecom) and seen as a bulky and slow alternative?  When,
> and with whom, was the actual decision made to ditch X.500 altogether?  This
> part of the story goes a long way to explaining why everyone in the world
> doesn't have a unique identifier.

I have my theory on that subject -- I'll send you the relevant paper I wrote
on the history of email, there's a brief discussion.

Thanks!

Craig