IPP Mail Archive: Re: IPP> PRO - Issue 32: Use of Basic & Digest Authentication

Re: IPP> PRO - Issue 32: Use of Basic & Digest Authentication

Michael Sweet (mike@easysw.com)
Thu, 08 Apr 1999 08:04:32 -0400

"Manros, Carl-Uno B" wrote:
> ...
> The IETF always insists that its standards have to work over the
> worldwide Internet and on any platform, even if they may equally
> well be used in a more restricted environment such as an intranet,
> or for a particular platform, which may not need all the features
> required by the standard.

This may be the case, but Basic and Digest both work over the
"worldwide Internet".

> ...
> Your other option is to build a product that DOES NOT CONFORM TO THE
> STANDARD, and we have seen many examples of that too for other IETF
> standards. That hasn't generally moved the IETF to relax their
> standards.

That's the problem - we *don't* want to release a non-conforming
product, primarily because the reason we've decided to go with IPP
(and take a 6-month product release delay...) is to make our printing
solution portable between operating systems!

YOU have the option of not mandating Digest support in servers, but
recommending it. Clients should be required to support Digest, but
servers shouldn't. The IETF *should* listen to valid arguments
concerning the usability of the standards it endorses, and if IPP
can't be configured to use existing user accounts then it won't be
accepted by the community at-large!

(And if the IETF won't listen to arguments, then it's time to dissolve
it and form a more flexible organization!)

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products                  mike@easysw.com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com