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

[Skip Montanaro <skip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> "Robert" == Robert Moskowitz <rgm3@chrysler.com> writes:

    Robert> At 03:26 PM 12/6/96 -0500, Skip Montanaro wrote:

    >> Lets consider another example.  Suppose we formed an IETF working group to
    >> work on the difficult problem of exchanging CAD information.  Up steps
    >> AutoCAD and says, "Hey gang! We have this super object format called DXF
    >> that will do everything you need already.  Just define a new MIME type to
    >> encapsulate it and you're done."  Are you going to go tear apart DXF and
    >> replace its existing grouping with MIME?  You could I suppose, but it would
    >> probably be a very poor move.

    Robert> Nah, actually we are working with AutoSTEP and ENGDATA.  Might see
    Robert> something soonish in this department...

'twas a hypothetical example, but thanks for the reference just the same.

    >> It's important to realize where the envelope ends and the letter begins.
    >> It's a bit tempting to try and use MIME as a general-purpose separator for
    >> compound document formats that happen to be easily readable because they
    >> only use printable ASCII (or ISO) characters.  Most of us would never dream
    >> of chopping up binary formats like GIF or DXF using MIME.  Why should we
    >> chop up vCalendar into MIME-separated pieces because we can view vCalendars
    >> with a text editor?

    Robert> But in both of my real life cases, the data is binary.  Is vcalendar also
    Robert> binary?

No.  That's my point.  If you couldn't see and read the dang BEGIN/END tags
and all the stuff in between them, nobody would have even considered MIME.
Compound document formats of all sorts abound.  Binary ones tend to be
viewed as black boxes.  My suspicion is that being about the read a document
format directly tempts people to want to tear it apart and do it "better",
or at least different.  

Skip Montanaro     |       Musi-Cal:  http://concerts.calendar.com/
skip@calendar.com  |    "It doesn't matter where you get your appetite as
(518)372-5583      |    long as you eat at home." -- Sloan Wainwright