[ih] "The Internet runs on Proposed Standards"

[John Levine]

It appears that Jack Haverty via Internet-history <jack at 3kitty.org> said:
>operating between my keyboard/screen and yours.  It could be all 
>Standards of some ilk, or it could all be Proprietary.   It might 
>conform to the spec, or have some zero-day flaw.  How do you tell?

IETF standards are all about interoperation.  I don't have to care
what's inside your black box so long as it talks to my black box
using standard protocols.

I realize this argument gets fuzzy around the edges, but for the stuff
I do like e-mail, if the other end doesn't speak SMTP as described in
RFCs over TCP and IP as described in RFCs, it's not going to get any
mail delivered.

R's,
John