Re: Last Call: draft-ietf-usefor-usepro (Netnews Architecture and Protocols) to Proposed Standard

In <[email protected]> Tony Hansen <[email protected]> writes:

>I admit it: I'm not a fan of X- headers.

>Why not just register a header in the header registry and be done with
>it, rather than encouraging yet-another set of X-headers, all possibly
>named differently? Why encourage the use of X- headers in a standards
>track document?

Because, in that case, there are 57 other headers that you ought to
standardize.

As I have already pointed out, X-Headers are fine when intended for human
consumption, or for automatic recognition only by the agents that put them
there (as in this case, where different gateways could quite happily use
different X-Headers for this purpose).

And even if you were to standardize all 57 headers that might exist today,
someone would  promptly invent a new X-Header tomorrow.

It ain't broke ...

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