# Re: FTP syntax

Alan Emtage (bajan@bunyip.com)
Tue, 8 Mar 1994 11:05:31 -0500

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    Message-Id: <9403081605.AA12550@mocha.bunyip.com>

    From: bajan@bunyip.com (Alan Emtage)

    Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 11:05:31 -0500

    In-Reply-To: Dirk Herr-Hoyman's message as of Mar  8,  8:52

    To: hoymand@joe.uwex.edu (Dirk Herr-Hoyman), mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us (Mitra),

            <uri@bunyip.com>

    Subject: Re: FTP syntax

Dirk,

> At 8:42 PM 3/7/94 -0500, Alan Emtage wrote:
> >> I also think we could put it on the other end e.g.
> >>
> >> <url:ftp://ftp.path.net/one/two/three:binary>
> >>
> >> So that it's absence would indicate an old-stype URL, and that the
> >> client was on its own at guessing what it was.
> >
> >That's fine with me... I'm not out to make the conversion more difficult.
> >
> >OK with everyone?
> >
> Are we sure the ':' is not a legal selector character? What about systems
> where disks are noted with ':', is this going to pose a problem?
>
> While I like the suggestion Mitra has (though I might like to see these
> abbreviated to: dir,text,bin,tenex), I would again point out that we are
> adding what amounts to metainfo in non-orthagonal ways in different
> services. In particular, note how this contrasts with the gtype single
> character for gopher, which is basically serving the same purpose.

To paraphrase Mitra, I think we can step back and look at the big
picture. I assume from what you wrote that you agree in principle to the
information being there you are just concerned about the syntax? If that
is so then we're all in agreement. As agreed, we will need to include
metainfo when necessary for a particular access method. In this case FTP
requires it so we're basically working on what goes where. We could try
to make this look like gopher somehow, but I'd prefer to to step in front
of the careening gopher-type train (no offense Mark :-). (Can trains
"careen" ? :-).

Having said all of this, we just need a workable FTP url which
incorporates the "typing" data in such a way that (a) we don't break (if
possible) existing FTP-URL parsers (b) it conforms to the legal character
set (c) is unambigous in syntax. Correct?

    --
    -Alan

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    Alan Emtage,				"The Left in Canada is more gauche
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