RE: MIME as a vCalendar element separator - bad move...

["Lewis Geer (Exchange)" <lewisg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

responses below.

> From:	owner-ietf-calendar@imc.org [SMTP:owner-ietf-calendar@imc.org] On 
> Behalf Of Skip Montanaro
> 
> ----
> 
> If vCalendar objects were made up on of non-printing characters like GIF
> images, DXF files, Word documents or ELF executables we wouldn't even be
> having this discussion.
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  As I said in an earlier post, all of these 
> file formats have additional functionality.  What additional 
> functionality do the vcalendar separators have over MIME separators?
> 
> ----
> 
> Just because MIME is a compound document format with separators doesn't 
> mean
> it has to be the only one we ever use again.  Nor does it mean it's the 
> best
> one for every task where you need a separator.
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  It seems to work fine for calendaring, given 
> the example I posted.  Are there counter examples?
> 
> ----
> [..snip..] 
> 
> There is, believe it or not, software available that parses and 
> generates
> vCalendars.  I see no particular reason to break them gratuitously.
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  We are going to end up with a new standard; 
> enough people have issues, such as daylight saving time.  Software will 
> have to be upgraded.  Changing scanf's will not be a huge task.
> ----
> 
> MIME is meant to encapsulate documents or bundle multiple individual
> documents into larger aggregates.  For instance, a co-author might use a
> MIME multipart document to send the chapters of a book to me where each
> individual file was a Word document.  When I split up the multipart 
> document
> each element stands on its own, at least from an application program
> standpoint.  Each element can be handled by separate applications 
> without
> relying on the others.  I can ship Chapter 1 to Sherry, Chapter 2 to 
> Mabel,
> and keep Chapter 3 for myself.
> 
> I have an intuitive notion of what an event is.  In general, it involves
> multiple people coming together at the same time and place (ignoring 
> video
> conferences and so forth for a moment).  Operating on any of the three
> components independently doesn't make sense the way operating on the
> individual Word documents does.  Giving Sherry the time, Mabel the list 
> of
> people and keeping the location for myself just gives each of us an
> incomplete picture of the whole.  They aren't meant to stand alone.
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  MIME has several constructs for handling 
> relations between body parts.  Content-ID, which labels each part for 
> reference from another part, is the simplest.  Multipart/relative 
> allows one to structure these relationships.
> ----
> 
> I guess what I'm trying to say is MIME is fine encapsulation and for
> coarse-grained composition of relatively large objects.  vCalendars are
> generally itty bitty things.  In my opinion you're trying to be too
> fine-grained with MIME, in effect, driving a tack with a sledgehammer.
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  If you look at the examples, there is almost 
> no difference between the two.  MIME is not a sledgehammer, it's 
> actually very elegant and simple.
> ----
> 
> Now, why didn't I use MIME separators or BEGIN/END separators above?  
> They
> weren't appropriate for the job...
> 
> [Lewis Geer (Exchange)]  What exactly is the different functionality 
> that BEGIN/END has over boundary strings?  They are just strings.
>