# Re: URNs in the DNS

Peter Deutsch (peterd@bunyip.com)
Wed, 21 Jul 1993 21:10:34 -0400

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    Message-Id: <9307220110.AA11319@expresso.bunyip.com>

    From: Peter Deutsch <peterd@bunyip.com>

    Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 21:10:34 -0400

    In-Reply-To: Rob Raisch's message as of Jul 16, 13:12

    To: Rob Raisch <raisch@ora.com>, Michael Mealling <ccoprmm@oit.gatech.edu>

    Subject: Re: URNs in the DNS

Hi Rob,

[ You wrote: ]
. . .
> Ummmm.... Perhaps I should mention that the way Registrar is set up is almost
> a one-for-one match with IAFA templates. What this means is that there is a
> template for each URN, and each template contains a list of URL records, as
> well as mucho other meta information. The only reason I wrote registrar to
> begin with is that whois++ is, (as far as I am aware), currently vapourware,
> and I felt it was really important for people to actually see something which
> approached the problem.

Ouch! No hard feelings here Rob but I'd have to dispute
the claim that WHOIS++ is vapourware. There is one
released server (Mark Prior's X.500 gateway), as well as at
least three (and perhaps four) separate server
implementations underway. A group coordinated by the gang
in North Carolina are also working on a set of clients.

Here at Bunyip, we are now distributing our server in
"Heathkit" form (ie. we will provide a completed WHOIS++
library capable of parsing queries, manipulating the data
structures, etc, plus a modified version of the PD WAIS
search engine capable of searching and serving
attribute/value pairs and so on. All that it lacks is the
packaging of this into a standalone server and Alan is
doing that this week, so barring a disaster we should have
an alpha version ready by the start of next week).

The protocol spec is now pretty stable (there were a few
complaints in Amstersam about the lack of MIME output
format, which was promised but I didn't have time to
wordsmith in the details, and a couple of suggestions for
some more added features, but otherwise people seemed
pretty happy with both the architecture and the document).

Of course, there were a number of newcomers to the group
there and a few of the standard crowd were missing, which
made it harder to judge the reponse but we're far from
moribund and work on this project continues at a number of
sites at a fairly high rate of knots.

Perhaps spending your time on another WHOIS++ implementation
would have been a suitable approach to what you are
doing. If you'd done it that way, you'd have had
something that was more generalized and of use to people
outside the immediate URI community, but it's your call.

Anyways, that's approach we're taking and hope to put
things out for testing in the next few days. I trust in
exchange the community will forgive us if we're a little
late with a standalone package. I'll post to this list
oncewe have something ready.

- peterd

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         Peter Deutsch,                                  (514) 875-8611  (phone)
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