Re: (ngtrans) Joint DNSEXT & NGTRANS summary

[Bill Manning <bmanning@ISI.EDU>]

% > - It is clear that we could evolve from AAAA to A6 later if 
% >   it became necessary.
% 
% I think that such evolution will quickly move from the realm of clear
% possibilities to "things that simply will not happen" as the base of
% resolvers that serve AAAA clients but doesn't do AAAA synthesis grows.

	Lets see, pretty much every resolver "shipped" since 1996
	has AAAA support but does not do A4synth. One could infer
	that this is a fairly large base.

% Today it would be easy, since the resolver base is small and mostly
% based upon various versions of bind9 that will (all?) be upgraded to a
% version with AAAA synthesis built in.

	This is a much smaller base but might be growing... at least
	on the server side.  Of course, with the "genetic diversity"
	that is now present, we have a number of suppliers to consider.
	DJB has stated that he has no intention of supporting either
	A4synth or A6.  

% Tomorrow, with a large base of resolvers without that functionality,
% anyone who attempts to move from AAAA to A6 will literaly saw off the
% branch of the tree he is sitting on (from the perspective of AAAA
% on-lookers on the ground).

	True of the adoption of any new feature.

% All I am saying is that I think any attempt att consensus through the
% "we can always upgrade later" argument is bound to misfire.

	Hum... while using this arguement to try and reach consensus
	may be fraught with danger, the basic premise, that the Internet
	is evolutionary, e.g. "we can always upgrade later" is a 
	core concept in many peoples minds.  Revolutionary techniques,
	e.g. flag days, non-backward compatability, etc. are much harder
	to float past the "powers that be".  These days, such techniques
	tend to come from outside, and blindside the PTB, then we all 
	have to scramble to adapt/adopt. e.g. Netscape, RealNetworks,
	etc. come to mind.
% 
% Johan
% 


-- 
--bill