[ietf-dkim] Acronyms

[Jim Fenton]

Barry Leiba wrote:
> Actually responding to the thread this time, as a participant...
>
>   
>>>> It's not confusing if the meaning is related.  The term "user or
>>>> agent" is the actual semantics of this value.  I read that as
>>>> equivalent to "user agent".
>>>>         
>>> It's not.  A user agent is an application that acts on behalf of the
>>> user but is not the user.
>>>       
>> UAID is an identifier.  In computing contexts such as DKIM, all identifiers
>> refer to machine-based entities, possibly ones that are representing humans.
>>     
>
> The only concern I have here is that because "user agent" has a
> specific connotation, there could be confusion about what happens to
> it when a user uses more than one UA.  Suppose I use Gmail's web
> client, Mulberry, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird, all at different times,
> and all sending mail as <barryleiba at computer.org> through Gmail's
> email infrastructure.  (In fact, that *is* the case.)  Should the UAID
> that Gmail sticks in the signature always be the same, because it's
> just me, using these client programs interchangably?  Should it be
> different for all of them, because they're all different UAs?  Should
> the webmail version use one UAID, and the others use another, because
> there are only two submission mechanisms involved (web vs SMTP to port
> 587)?
>
> I can see that someone implementing or configuring a system wouldn't
> be sure how to set this up, and at least part of the confusion would
> be due to interpretation of "user agent".
>   

I share this concern, because I use at least three MUAs (at Cisco, that
is...more at home).  We don't want to give the impression that the
choice of MUA is necessarily reflected in the i= value.
> I also agree that we should spend too long on this point... again,
> speaking as a participant.
>   

Yes, by all means let's spend too long on this!  :-)

-Jim