Subject: RE: ASCII text message option (option 56)

From: Nathan Lane <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 16:25:39 -0500

[.....] implementation that I have in mind for
> NetBSD doesn't involve automatically firing up a full-fledged
> browser.   I can't speak to what Stuart or Nathan have in mind, of
> course.
> 
	Now we're dying to know what *you* have in mind...but arbitrary
execution is not what I was thinking.  Just a referral URL and a little
window that understands HTML/1.0 is more than enough.  Of course, that part
of it is not relevant to DHCP.

	-Nathan    

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From: Ted Lemon <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 14:48:02 -0700

> but arbitrary execution is not what I was thinking.  Just a referral
> URL and a little window that understands HTML/1.0 is more than
> enough.

That's what I had in mind too.   The reason I had something specific
in mind is that there are several choices for NetBSD as to *what*
widget to use to display HTML, not that I had a specific application
in mind.

			       _MelloN_

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From: "Eric A. Hall" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 14:57:08 -0700

> widget to use to display HTML, not that I had a specific application

I didn't say HTML in (1), I said URLs.

Encapsulating raw HTML is a whole nother bag of beans. Do you really
need support for <B> and <I> tags or is it just something you want? What
about <H1> tags? What about multipart messages that reference external
plugins? Full-bore HTML chained onto the back of the DHCP transaction is
just as dangerous as an exec option would be, even worse is an HTTP stub
that interprets HTML and performs actions against it.

This is why you have to separate "here is a link" and "open this link".
The former is easy, the latter is very hairy.

-- 
Eric A. Hall                                      http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/