From: Charles Lindsey (chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Nov 08 1999 - 05:32:02 CST
In <19991105171904.42143@main.templetons.com> Brad Templeton <brad@main.templetons.com> writes:
>The key here is that you don't allow use of extensions somewhere it might
>break an old parser, but surely that doesn't apply to a new control message,
>which can't possibly be being parsed by an older parser.
But control messages are just part of the Control header. If existing
parsers first parse the Control header, expecting just to find a verb and
a few parameters separated by whitespace, which they then pass on to
specific code for each verb, then you can't suddenly expect to add new
syntax for a new verb that is not consistent with the existing model.
You are confusing the ease of adding brand-new-syntax to brand-new-headers
with the ease of adding brand-new-syntax to parameters of existing
headers.
-- Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------ Email: chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl Voice/Fax: +44 161 437 4506 Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K. PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5