Message for Bind-users

[Cris Rhea]

> And that's where the analogy breaks down, as all analogies ultimately do.
> It takes a lot of effort -- *physical* effort -- to widen a tunnel, but
> just a few code tweaks to start accepting underscores. IMO, lifting the
> underscore ban, which would increase the available namespace and offer more
> naming flexibility, exceeds the cost/benefit threshold in the long term.
> But, given the effort required to implement it, unless and until a proposal
> to widen all of the tunnels can be found to produce some *overwhelming*
> positive advantage, it does not.
> 
> 
> - Kevin

Yes, changing BIND to accept underscores would be only a few lines, BUT you've failed
to take into account the changes necessary to the resolver libraries on all the 
platform/OS combinations connected to the internet. Implementing a change to a 
long-standing RFC is non-trivial when it touches every system connected to the internet.

BIND is only a small sliver of the pie...

--- Cris

-- 
 Cristopher J. Rhea                     Mayo Foundation
 Research Computing Facility             Pavilion 2-25
 crhea at Mayo.EDU                        Rochester, MN 55905
 Fax: (507) 266-4486                     (507) 284-0587