On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Randall Gellens <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > At 2:12 PM -0400 9/23/14, John C Klensin wrote: > >> --On Tuesday, September 23, 2014 12:31 -0400 Phillip >> Hallam-Baker <phill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >>> ... >>> Case in point, did we really need to have two completely >>> separate email standards? There was absolutely no possibility >>> of common ground? >>> >>> I have discussed it with the AD who made the decision and he >>> pointed out that before he made the two groups completely >>> separate there was no progress on either. But end to end email >>> has been hurt by the fact that we have two incompatible >>> standards and they are both IETF standards. >> >> >> In my capacity as the document editor for one of the >> specifications I assume you are referring to, I have to confess >> to having no idea what you are talking about. > > > Surely PHB isn't saying that SMTP and the email format docs are > incompatible? That would be a nonsensical assertion, since they are > separate layers (the one is used to transport the other). Perhaps there are > two different email standards that perform the same functions but are > incompatible? Perhaps S/MIME and PGP? Or perhaps two different security > related email specs? I meant two secure email standards. Empirically we have two right now, S/MIME and PGP. Since I was talking about security, I thought it was obvious from the context.