Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 14:59:16 +0500
From: dupuy@smarts.com (Alexander Dupuy)
Message-Id: <9403281959.AA25312@brainy.smarts.com>
To: masinter@parc.xerox.com, timbl@www0.cern.ch
Subject: Re: URL spec changes
> BTW "tenex" isn't mentioned in RFC959 -- there are RFCs about
> it RFC458, RFC478, RFC571. The alternatives to A and I modes
> are LOCAL(byte) and EBCDIC. This is from RFC959:
>
> <type-code> ::= A [<sp> <form-code>]
> | E [<sp> <form-code>]
> | I
> | L <sp> <byte-size>
tenex isn't mentioned in the RFCs because it's just a convenient client-side
synonym for LOCAL BYTE SIZE 8. This was useful when FTP'ing non-tenex
binaries from a tenex machine (they were usually stored as four 8 bit bytes in
a 36 bit word, and using IMAGE to copy these files would add 4 bits of junk
after every four bytes). I don't know if there are any tenex servers still
out there - SIMTEL-20, perhaps?
> > <<================================================================
> > An optional user name (with optional password)
> > if required (as it is with a few FTP servers).
> > The password, if present, follows the user
> > name delimited by a colon; the user name
> > and optional password are followed by a
> > commercial at-sign "@". The use of user name
> > and passwords (which are public) is
> > discouraged.
>
> Slight change to
>
> An optional user name, if required (as it is with a few FTP servers). The
> password, is present, follows the user name, separated from it by a colon;
> the user name and optional password are followed by a commercial at sign "@".
> The user of user name and passwords which are public is discouraged.
>
> [as "delimited" sometimes something on the end not the beginning, and
> as the internal (private use) of URLs containing private passwords
> is not what we are discouraging. We aren't stating that passwords
> are public.]
I thought that at one point there was some agreement that the FTP URL should
support ACCOUNT specifications, since that is a part of the FTP user login. I
don't remember if there was a proposed syntax, but I'll suggest that it follow
the password, separated from it by a colon (since colons in the password will
have to be escaped as %3A anyhow.
@alex