In message <04bd01c0c133$a79003e0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
William J. Kammerer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>Okay - I'll put forth a theory: It's not so much an EDIFACT or European
>hangup. But, rather the Europeans don't need receipt acknowledgements
>because I've heard a rumor they use X.400 networks. I don't think we've
>ever seen the X.400 critter here in the U.S. - instead Americans
>predominantly use private VANs with no elegant feedback as to when or
>whether documents were delivered. X.400, in conjunction with X.435
>PEDI, on the other hand, has built-in acknowledgement (and
>confidentiality and non-repudiation) which would render the interchange
>receipt CONTRL superfluous.
It is an attractive theory, William, and I wish it were true.
Unfortunately X.400 has not fared well in competition with the Internet
and may well be relegated to acting as the bridging mechanism between
different mail systems (for which it is well suited). You can pretty
much count the producers of X.400 software on the fingers of one badly
mutilated hand nowadays. The confidentiality and non-repudiation were
very attractive features. X.435 did not give the same detail of
acknowledgement as a CONTRL message (from memory you only had one octet
to carry a code as to why you had rejected a message) but since an
indication of rejection is more important than the detailed reason for
the rejection one could live with that.
The reason for the success of the Internet protocols is simple, or
rather simplicity. I can, and have, coded SMTP and POP3 clients in a
couple of hours. An X.400 User Agent would take several weeks.
I am surprised that you feel that VANs are so bad at acknowledgements.
The major ones in the UK will tell you when a message has been picked up
from a recipient mailbox. They are a bit naughtier if a message crosses
a bridge between VANs. The normal bridging protocol used is still OFTP,
which is perfectly capable of giving end-to-end responses, but the VANs
don't seem to implement them correctly; contenting themselves with an
"It crossed the bridge successfully so we did our bit" response.
Regards
Chris
--
Chris Johnson tel: +44 (0)20 8 501 1490 (home)
EDIMatrix Ltd +44 (0)20 8 559 2454 (work)
+44 (0)20 8 559 2497 (fax)
http://www.edimatrix.demon.co.uk
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