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#24  06 Oct 89  13:34:24 [1] (PRIVATE) (KILL/SENT) $0.22
From: Tom Jennings, 1:125/111
To:   Doug Thompson, 1:163/162, <ISIS HQ (II), Ottawa ON
Subj: Re: re: Fido 12 commercial version

The INTL line is really the messages address fields. The ones in the .MSG 
header are inadequate -- no zone fields. So FIdo fully addresses every 
message. Others insist it is not necesarry. I insist it is. Here's why:
 
If you or I genreate a mesage that is inter-zone, once delivered it is 
intra-zone! And in transit along the way its status varies.
 
The logic used is this: I generate a full INTL address every time. If the 
destinaztion zone != my zone, then I use the IFNA Kludge logic to set the 
.MSG file headers address to myzone/destzone, ie. the zone gate. That system 
is supposed to know how to handle INTL lines.
 
The above was two years ago, it was ssumed correctly that existing programs 
couldnt handle INTL lines, hence the split addresses. The zone gate at that 
time was presumed to be some "magical" box that would transform the .MSG 
header addresses, and cross the zone boundary, using information NOT 
CONTAINED IN THE MESSAGE! It would "know" that (for instance) Zone 2 was at 
some particular phone number, etc.
More[Y,n,c] c
 
Well, Fido, and presumably others, use the INTL line as the "real" address. 
Fido reads the .MSG header first to build an address for that message, then 
checks for the INTL line; if it exists, that is used for the source/dest 
addresses. This is done at the lowest possible level so that three level 
addresses are an integral part of Fido's addressing scheme. YOu can 
file-attach or file-request from any node to any node, interzone or 
intrazone. There is no special cases when crossing zones, just like there are 
none when crossing nets. (Imagine the clamor you'd generate if you insisted 
on "net gates" or other nonsense!)
 
I am not sure if I fully understand your thread scheme. It probably doesnt 
matter at this point. I will do customization to Fido for a fee anyways, as 
long as it doesnt impact basic design criteria, and that sounds like it 
doesnt. We can talk about this later. Send me a copy in writing so's I can 
pore over it and I'll give a better guess.
 
Quantity arrangements and all that 

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