On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Julian Mehnle wrote: > Malcolm Weir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Which leads to the inevitable observation that there are no prizes for > > conformance to the RFC, but there are for getting the job done. The > > job of a mail transfer agent is to transfer mail. Not pass a > > conformance test based on a specific interpretation of an RFC... > > Not conforming to the RFC might not get you a prize, but it definitely > has a price you'll have to pay some day or another. Widely accepting > non-compliance will inevitably make non-compliance... well... widely > acceptable. So we tend to lose standards compliance, ultimately > harming interoperability.
Mr. Weir is absolutely right. I challenge you to show me a software product that is 100% RFC compliant *and* is usable without major caveats. Offhand, I can't think of any. If courier were 100% RFC compliant it would not interoperate with *any* other MTA, except itself perhaps. The RFCs are *guidelines* and could be considered "strong suggestions". I find your position especially delicious considering your MUA of choice: X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) courier-mta's job is to be an MTA. Read that out loud, and expand the acronym. MAIL TRANSFER AGENT. Yep. Transferring mail is it's JOB. it's not courier-rfc-compliant-the-rest-of-you-be-damned-mta, it's courier-mta. By suggesting that courier-mta conform to all RFCs 100% means that you live in a fantasy land where by being pedantic about everything you can force everybody else to be pedantic, too. -- Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep. Jon Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> C and Python Code Gardener ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ courier-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users
