[ppml] Directory Services - Take 2

[bmanning at vacation.karoshi.com]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2005 at 10:51:06AM +0100, Michael.Dillon at btradianz.com wrote:
> >        ARIN shall publish the APID in the following methods using
> >        industry standard practices:
> > 
> >            - Via the WHOIS protocol.
> >            - Via a query form accessible via the HTTP protocol.
> >            - Via FTP to users who complete the bulk data form.
> >            - Via CDROM to users who complete the bulk data form.
> >            - Via the RWHOIS protocol.
> 
> This just sucks.
> 
> The RWHOIS protocol is an ancient creaking unmaintained 
> and unsupported protocol which is sorely in need of retirement.

Michael,

	while i will not disagree about the desire for retiring
	said protocol, you seem confused about WHOIS vs RWHOIS.

WHOIS is ancient, creaking - with various bodies building incompatable
	shims/expectations on this (excessively) flexible protocol.
	My mail archives(*) do not see when the last supported/maintained
	change was made to the whois protocol so that would be pre 1994.
	(no that does not count the tweeks various folks have made to 
	try and "standardise" the query type or return string... with 
	only slightly more success than attempts to standardize the
	format of the DNS TXT rr type...)

(pop quiz... which is more extensible, whois or finger?)

rWHOIS, on the other hand, is a decade or so younger than the venerable
	WHOIS... and is maintained and supported.  e.g.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 16:07:46 -0400                                                  
Subject: [ANN] rwhoisd-1.5.9.5 and rwhoisd-1.5.10-pre5                                
List-Id: General user list for the RWhois protocol and reference software             
        <rwhois.rwhois.net>                                                           
Hello folks,

This  is a bug fix release containing Joe Pruett's IPv4 formatting
fix.  These versions are recommended over previous releases.

Just a reminder: the main difference between the 1.5.9.x series and
the 1.5.10 series is the NETBLOCK index type, which allows the
indexer to index off-boundary network block ranges (or just allow you
to specify everything in network ranges rather than CIDR notation).
Feedback on the 1.5.10 releases would be appreciated.

Anyway, get them at:

<http://www.rwhois.net/ftp/rwhoisd-1.5.9.5.tar.gz>                                    
<http://www.rwhois.net/ftp/rwhoisd-1.5.10-pre5.tar.gz>                                
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	other comments (thanks Lea) wrt over specification of 
	implementation details are spot on.  IMHO of course.

* most of the mail archives are swapped out... on old media types that
are tough to get support/drivers for ... :(

--bill