Comments on: What’s wrong with the Internet – SMTP http://ilya-sher.org/blog/post/inet-wrong-smtp/ A13F3BBB1F25347775112B56DBC19072 Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:32:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Matt http://ilya-sher.org/blog/post/inet-wrong-smtp/#comment-227 Matt Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:32:17 +0000 https://sshoverpci.com/blog/post/inet-wrong-smtp/#comment-227 I've held this view (text-protocols are absurd) for a long time. What I find most perplexing is that these protocols (HTTP, FTP included) were all conceived in the age where network resources were very lmited. The only argument I've ever heard in support of text protocols is that they are "easy to debug" and even if we were to assume this is at all a valid reason I fail to see how it outweighs the severe performance penalty and furthermore the security vulnerabilities that are rendered applicable by using such a ridiculously complicated encoding. My only explaination is that these standards were not conjured by anywhere near software engineering (although they most probably were, which is quite depressing) I’ve held this view (text-protocols are absurd) for a long time. What I find most perplexing is that these protocols (HTTP, FTP included) were all conceived in the age where network resources were very lmited.

The only argument I’ve ever heard in support of text protocols is that they are “easy to debug” and even if we were to assume this is at all a valid reason I fail to see how it outweighs the severe performance penalty and furthermore the security vulnerabilities that are rendered applicable by using such a ridiculously complicated encoding.

My only explaination is that these standards were not conjured by anywhere near software engineering (although they most probably were, which is quite depressing)

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