[Ietf-not43] extensibility

[Edward Lewis]

Regarding Ted's note - I do feel a bit guilty about making this 
thread seem antagonistic.  My intent is to fill in a huge blind spot 
(LDAP) in my knowledge.  Frankly I (and this is just my history) 
haven't seen anything come of LDAP in the many years I have know of 
it's existence.  (That would date back to at least 1995.)

This message is in the context of my being ignorant about LDAP's 
deployment.  I'm not saying the LDAP is garbage, I'm saying that I am 
unaware of it's advances.  Given that background I have a question 
and a comment to this.

At 20:42 -0500 7/25/03, Eric A. Hall wrote:
>It may be cheaper for
>delegation operators to reuse the provreg stuff ..., but for the average
>user the initial cost won't have already been underwritten.

I'm asking out of my pure ignorance.  Why would a client-side user 
want to integrate the responses from the CRISP protocol in a 
something that's built on LDAP?  I apologize that this may seem like 
an indictment, but I'm asking in the spirit of "I really can't 
imagine how/why."  (I'm not discounting that LDAP can do this, I just 
don't see why.)

>Then we get into the real meaty stuff, like the number of RFCs that have
>gone into LDAP,

I coming from a long term relationship with DNSSEC. (;()  There are 
quite a few RFCs on that subject, but to date it is not useable.  I 
don't think that the number of RFCs is a measure of anything quite 
frankly.  My point is that a lot of work has gone into LDAP and I 
know of the work, but I am ignorant of where LDAP is applied in spite 
of all the work.

(Much to the same extent of PKIX work - a lot of energy and still a 
lot of frustration in seeing it adopted.)

>Really what the favoritism towards IRIS boils down to is a preference for
>convenience.

Granted - but the "favoritism" is the bias expressed by *A FEW* folks 
that are on the registry side of the game.  Perhaps I was a bit too 
definitive in making *my* statement in favor of IRIS (at this time, I 
should add), but I wanted to make it clear.  I anticipated one of two 
outcomes - either the FIRS proponents would lay down their pens and 
grant the title to IRIS (YES, I AM JOKING!) or FIRS proponents would 
let me know what I am missing about the FIRS advantages.

I have been known to be someone who switches sides in arguments of 
this (IRIS v FIRS) nature based on what I learn.  Right now I see 
advantages favoring IRIS but this may only be because I am stupid 
about FIRS or LDAP.  So, to this end I would appreciate hearing how 
FIRS is more extensible for the client (and/or server) side - not 
just that it is because of the LDAP legacy.

-- 
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Edward Lewis                                            +1-703-227-9854
ARIN Research Engineer

...as graceful as a blindfolded bull in a china shop...