‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Friday, August 21, 2020 11:37 PM, Grant Taylor <gtay...@gentoo.tnetconsulting.net> wrote:
> SMTP may not be the best, but I do think that it has some merits. > Merits that the previously mentioned HTTP/2 alternative misses. not a major point but just to clarify a thing. i think it's unfair to look at SMTP as a single thing that compares against HTTP*. because while HTTP* is a single-ish thing, SMTP is several things. i.e. SMTP is at least 2 parts: 1. resource exchange layer where people are defined as some kind of URL (e.g. n...@dom.zone) and attachments are base64-ed text balls referred to by some numbers in RFC822. This part overlaps with HTTP*. let's call this "RESXCH_SERVER". 2. the part where it defines how to process the exchanged resources (e.g. safe storage, routing, etc). this part is beyond HTTP*'s scope, and is the "web app" scope. let's call this "RESUSE_SERVER" of course, email still doesn't work with those 2 parts, because you need a way to get mails to your email client, so you end up using POP or IMAP. now, this --itself-- is also two parts: 1. resource exchange layer to send resources to users. which also overlaps with HTTP* (again). let's call this "RESXCH_CLIENT". 2. the part where it defines how the mail client to treat the resources. let's call this "RESUSE_CLIENT". > Why add an additional protocol to the stack? > > TCP / SMTP is two layers. > > TCP / HTTP / $Email-protocol-de-jure is three layers. > > UDP / HTTP / $Email-protocol-de-jusre is three layers. > > Why introduce an additional layer? i disagree. i think this is more like it about the current email system: RESXCH_SERVER / RESUSE_SERVER / RESXCH_CLIENT / RESUSE_CLIENT it's 4 different layers to exchange mail between people. but if we plug HTTP* in the mix, it because only 3 different layers: HTTP* / RESUSE_SERVER / HTTP* / RESUSE_CLIENT and it is even nicer for when HTTP* is plugged, because it is also the protocol used for most of internet's traffic (web browsing). so basically total expected number of protocols/layers used in the universe, per second, will be much less if we, on planet earth, use a mail system that uses HTTP* instead of RESXCH_*.
