Subject: RE: concerned - RE: TXT records, are they alive?

From: "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 16:47:18 -0700

The problem with TXT record is simply a result of an age old problem, how to
support experimental deployment in a way that can transition to a permanent
solution?

Look at the number of X-Headers end up in use that should be commonly agreed
standards. It is the same issue.

The IETF has been burned both ways. In the past it would hand out numbers,
they would get used and then there would be a need to fix something, only
the existing deployment would be a fait acompli.

The opposite problem is when the OID never gets assigned because someone is
playing games fillibustering for three or four years so the draft never gets
to RFC, the code points are never assigned.

I don't think there is an ideal answer to the problem. At the moment the
IETF is operating in fear of the unknown mode, its proceedures simply take
too long for any viable product plan to depend on them. I have been waiting
several years now for the OID for logotypes in certs to be assigned.

TXT records do have deployment advantages, they also have major limitations,
you cannot query for particular types of TXT record. They are perfectly
adequate for proof of concept however.

		Phill

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