On 3/11/09 4:50 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote: > > > Eliot Lear wrote: >> 1. UA has an existing connotation that people will grab onto. This >> in itself is mnemonically confusing. > > It's not confusing if the meaning is related. The term "user or > agent" is the actual semantics of this value. I read that as > equivalent to "user agent".
It's not. A user agent is an application that acts on behalf of the user but is not the user. And it is used to refer the MUA. > > The basic UA/MTA model is based on the concept of delegation. Since > DKIM was created to delegate the task of claiming responsibility (from > the author to the entity doing the signing), I see it as a) consistent > with the underlying constructs of Internet mail and b) warranting > terminology for the "user or agent" component being similar. > > >> 2. If you're going to add acronyms, let them be ones that either can >> be easily pronounced without having to spell them out. > > Like "TCP" and "SNMP" and "BGP"? > > I prefer nicely pronounceable acronyms, too, but the absence of that > pleasant feature doesn't create a veto. And I'm not proposing a veto, Dave. I'm saying, 'yuck, but okay' precisely because I really don't think anyone sees as desirable semantic email ping pong to come up with a better term. Also I realized I didn't give the other half of that "either" above which is "use short 2 or 3 letter acronyms". My personal preference for best acronym used by the IETF is still IPoLPDN. I leave it as an exercise to the reader or the reader's memory to understand how that was pronounced. > > If you have a more pleasant acronym to suggest -- one that maintains > appropriate semantics -- by all means do so. Those of us who > developed the SDID/UAID acronyms also were not happy with the > aesthetics of the choice, but this was the best we could come up with. If you prefer, and I'm NOT standing on my head about this one, you could go for something like Private-Context-IDentifier (PCID), because I think that is really what is being described here. Eliot _______________________________________________ NOTE WELL: This list operates according to http://mipassoc.org/dkim/ietf-list-rules.html
