David Morris wrote:
It isn't a trivial technical problem to revise the electronic message
infrastructure to arrange for payment of postage but to assert that it
can't be done or wouldn't be deployed flys in the face of the relatively
short time frame for adoption of the WWW or IM.
adoption
I suspect you already know this, given your language, above, but its possible to
confuse a distinction yo imply:
There is a fundamental difference between adopting a new service, versus
revising an existing one. WWW and IM were new. No concern over protecting the
installed base.
It is one of the reasons that successful revision efforts which take a shorter
time attempt to do so in a way that emulates adopting a new one.
MIME is a particularly successful version of that. No changes to the
infrastructure. Didn't break recipient software that didn't support it. And
delivered a message that was still moderately readable for the non-supporting
recipient. (Oh, and the recipient could incorporate MIME, later, and be able to
enjoy its features.)
d/
--
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
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