[ih] The Internet Plan; was: Ken Olsen's impact on the Internet

[Craig Partridge]

> On Wed, 16 Feb 2011, John Levine wrote:
> 
> > >You mean akin to how SMTP, "Simple" mail transport protocol, was supposed
> > >to be replaced by something better when we figured out what email was
> > >going to be...:o)
> >
> > It may yet happen if we ever figure it out.
> 
> I think it already happened with MIME. It probably needs to happen again,
> though :-)

Bite thy tongue :-).   (I'm reminded of Mike O'Brien's injunction many years
ago to never say the three letters "MTP" in his presence please).

More seriously...

SMTP is rev 3 of email delivery
(with a 2nd system syndrome step): FTP begat MTP begat SMTP.

MIME is rev N in a continuing saga of email header/body format rules:

    RFC 561 -> RFC 680 (which never quite launched) -> RFC 724/733 ->
    RFC 822 -> <a convoluted process with many wrong turns> -> MIME

One could derive lessons here about many things such as operational
demands driving innovation (certainly true for SMTP), 2nd system
syndrome (both paths had it), the benefits of actually using the system
one is designing, etc...

Craig