Applications Area

Directors:


   o Erik Huizer:  erik.huizer@surfnet.nl
   o John Klensin:  klensin@infoods.unu.edu


Area Summary reported by Erik Huizer/SURFnet

This is a short report on the Applications Area, with respect to the
Houston IETF meeting November 1993.

The Applications Area currently contains the following working groups:


   o Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
   o OSI Directory Services (OSIDS)
   o TELNET (TELNET)
   o TELNET TN3270 Enhancements (TN3270E)
   o X.400 Operations (X400OPS)


In addition, the Applications Area and the User Services Area jointly
oversee the following working groups:


   o Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
   o Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
   o Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (IAFA)
   o Networked Information Retrieval (NIR)
   o Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)
   o Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)


The status of these groups is described in the User Services Area
report.

The Internet Message Extensions (822EXT), MIME-MHS Interworking
(MIMEMHS), and Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) Working Groups
have disbanded since the last meeting.

An open meeting of the Applications Area Directorate (APPLES) as well as
a MIME Content BOF (MIMECONT) were held in Houston.



Applications Area Directorate (APPLES)

The goal of the meeting was to present an overview of the applications
work that is going on in the Applications and User Services area,
possibly identify areas of common interest/overlap and discuss possible
coordination.



MIME Content BOF (MIMECONT)

The reviews covered:


   o Handling of SGML files over MIME
     There was a lengthy discussion and a new proposal will be prepared
     that reflects the comments.

   o Structuring, beyond the ``mixed,'' ``alternative,'' ``digest,'' and
     ``parallel'' constructions of RFC 1521, of Multipart MIME messages
     A new proposal is being prepared.

   o Models for attribute-value (or name-value) pairs over MIME, such as
     for personal contact information
     Discussions will continue using the 822ext mailing list.  Formation
     of a working group in this area is likely.

   o Mail delivery reports
     There have been several proposals for specific formats for
     automatically-generated reports about mail delivery or
     non-delivery.  The review concluded that a working group was needed
     in this area.

   o Language directionality
     The group reviewed a proposal for specifying the relationship
     between presentation order (e.g., on a screen) and characters in
     the data stream for languages whose characters were written other
     than left-to-right.  The conclusion was that this capability should
     not be added to text/plain, but should either use a different
     "text" subtype or that the information needed should be identified
     by multiple special character set names.

   o Macintosh files over MIME
     The group reviewed the new proposals.  Some tuning is still needed.
     A new draft will be produced and reviewed via an extended Last
     Call.



Internet Message Access Protocol Working Group (IMAP)

A total of nineteen agenda items were considered.  Considerable progress
was made on all fronts.  One notable result:  on Monday the group agreed
that the acronym ``IMAP'' should be remapped to the words ``Internet
Message Access Protocol'' to better reflect what the protocol has
evolved into.



OSI Directory Services Working Group (OSIDS)


The OSIDS Working Group will disband and their work items will be
partitioned among a number of new groups:


   o Schema and naming (Sri Sataluri)
   o Lightweight protocols (Tim Howes)
   o Indexing DSAs and centroids (Simon Spero)
   o IP representation in X.500 (Glenn Mannsfield)


Detailed proposed charters will be submitted by the proposed chairs and
discussed in a wider directory forum (e.g.  with WHOIS++ included).  The
OSIDS mailing list will remain for discussion of umbrella X.500 issues.

Document status:


   o The CLDAP (Connectionless LDAP) document will be submitted as a
     Proposed Standard.

   o The RFC 1384 update will be submitted as a Proposed Standard.

   o Two Internet-Drafts on representing IP information in the DIT will
     be submitted for approval as Experimental RFCs.

   o The ``Schema'' subgroup is established, and will submit various
     documents to replace RFC 1274.



TELNET Working Group (TELNET)


Unless the charter is revised, the group will conclude after the
environment and authentication documents are final.  Much of the meeting
focused on discussion of the environment Internet-Draft, ``Telnet
Environment Option'' and the authentication Internet-Draft, ``Telnet
Authentication and Encryption Option.''

Sam Sjogren raised the issue of interoperability testing.  The group was
receptive, and may try to schedule an event prior to the Seattle
meeting.



TELNET TN3270 Enhancements Working Group (TN3270E)

The current-practices Internet-Draft, ``TN3270 Current Practices,'' was
agreed on, but minor typographical errors were found.  It will be
reposted, and at that time should be forwarded for consideration as an
Informational RFC.

The LUnames-printer Internet-Draft, ``TN3270 Extensions for LUname and
Printer Selection,'' was discussed.  The two outstanding issues were
resolved and an new draft will be created in a couple of weeks.  That
should go through a quick internal review.  At that point, it should be
reviewed by key members of the TELNET Working Group and then forwarded
for consideration as an RFC. The question is:  should this document go
in as an Informational RFC or as a Proposed Standard which gets changed
to Informational when the ``TN3270 Enhancements'' Internet-Draft gets
published?

The ``TN3270 Enhancements'' Internet-Draft went through extensive
discussion.  All of the known issues were covered and an approach for
each was devised.  A new Internet-Draft will be created for review by
the working group members.  It is expected that a consensus can be
reached on this document by the end of the year to be published as a
Proposed Standard.


X.400 Operations Working Group (X400OPS)

   o Allan Cargille's Internet-Draft, ``Postmaster Convention for X.400
     Operations,'' will undergo minor editorial changes scheduled for
     November 8.

   o Alf Hansen's Internet-Draft, ``Operational Requirements for X.400
     Management Domains in the GO-MHS Community,'' will undergo one more
     editorial pass with the final version scheduled for November 15.

   o Claudio Allocchio gave a status report on the DNS mapping table
     experiment.  When the working group concludes, this work will be
     transferred to the RARE Working Group MSG.

   o The group reviewed the draft CXII Charter and developed a workplan
     for addressing this as a new IETF working group.

   o ADMD=IMX was presented by Allan Cargille.  Erik Huizer reiterated
     that this is a User Services issue that is inappropriate for this
     IETF.

   o Erik also reported that the establishment of an ``IOTF'' was agreed
     in principle by the IESG and the IAB.

   o With the completion of the above documents, the working group has
     completed all its goals and will conclude.  The mailing list for
     the group will be kept active to work new items as they may come
     up.