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William Jelavich's avatar

So, use Postel’s Law ?

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Robert Graham's avatar

omg that's such a great analogy!!!

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William Jelavich's avatar

When i first thought of it. I first was “no…” so i waited two days. I know in the IETF there are discussions that this should change for protocols. But I think it makes strong sense in talking with people.

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Robert Graham's avatar

Oh, yea. Postel's law was hugely important in the early days of the network when we struggled to get ANYTHING working. But it was already obsoletely around 1990 and now hinders interoperability.

FTP is a great example. Without Postel's law, it wouldn't have worked at all. But because of Postel's law, it never really interoperates well. There's always boundary cases, such as parsing directory listings, where things break down.

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