Subject: 2222bis: use of "authentication protocol exchange"

From: Alexey Melnikov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 10:56:54 +0100

Hi,

The issue discussed below was raised by Kurt. He suggested to replace 
"authentication protocol exchange" to "authentication exchange" 
everywhere in the document.

Kurt wrote:

>The problem here is this usage causes the term 'protocol'
>to be overloaded, making this and other uses of the term
>ambiguous.  We need to consistently use the term 'protocol'
>to refer to the application-level protocol making use of
>SASL.  Other protocols, in particular that of mechanisms,
>should be referred to by other terms, such as an
>'authentication exchange'.

The term "authentication protocol exchange" comes from RFC 2222. It 
tries to say that an "authentication exchange" produced by a SASL 
mechanism is carried by a SASL aware protocol. (I personally find the 
original term unambiguous, although it is cumbersome.) So I am a bit 
worried about changing "authentication protocol exchange" to 
"authentication exchange" at this stage, as this seems to be a 
[significant] terminology change from RFC 2222.

It is probably Ok to say in the Introduction that "authentication 
protocol exchange" and "authentication exchange" are synonyms and that 
the document will use the latter term everywhere.

I would like to hear opinions of other WG members.

Thanks,
Alexey

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From: Ken Murchison <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 09:24:33 -0400

> everywhere in the document.

This change wouldn't bother me.

-- 
Kenneth Murchison     Oceana Matrix Ltd.
Software Engineer     21 Princeton Place
716-662-8973 x26      Orchard Park, NY 14127
--PGP Public Key--    http://www.oceana.com/~ken/ksm.pgp

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From: Alexey Melnikov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:21:21 +0100

> This change wouldn't bother me. 

Let me clarify what kind of answers I was expecting to my question. I 
would like to hear something like:
1). I don't care either way.
2). I prefer that all occurrences of "authentication protocol exchange" 
are changed to "authentication exchange", but I am Ok if this is not done.
3). Must change "authentication protocol exchange" to "authentication 
exchange".

Having said that, are you #1 or #2?

Alexey

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From: Ken Murchison <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 10:41:16 -0400

> Having said that, are you #1 or #2?

#2

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From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:02:06 -0700

Let me re-iterate my basic concern.  The specification uses the
term 'protocol' in general to refer to the application-level
protocol which is profiling SASL.  Using the term in other
contexts is confusing.

For instance, the statement that "A SASL mechanism is responsible
for conducting an authentication protocol exchange" is unnecessarily
confusing.  By dropping the word "protocol" from this sentence,
it is more clear that the mechanism is responsible for the
authentication exchange (which is defined in the next sentence
as a series of challenges and responses) and not the actual
protocol for carrying the exchange.

I note that the current I-D already uses the terms "authentication
exchange" instead of "authentication protocol exchange" in numerous
places.  My suggestion is to always use the term "authentication
exchange" in place of "authentication protocol exchange".  I view
this as an editorial change that will improve specification
clarity.

With chair hat off, Kurt

At 07:21 AM 9/3/2004, Alexey Melnikov wrote:

>>>The issue discussed below was raised by Kurt. He suggested to replace "authentication protocol exchange" to "authentication exchange" everywhere in the document.
>>
>Let me clarify what kind of answers I was expecting to my question. I would like to hear something like:
>2). I prefer that all occurrences of "authentication protocol exchange" are changed to "authentication exchange", but I am Ok if this is not done.
>3). Must change "authentication protocol exchange" to "authentication exchange".
>

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From: Morteza Ansari <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 12:02:50 -0700

#2.

Cheers,
Morteza

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From: Tony Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 23:22:11 -0400

> 3). Must change "authentication protocol exchange" to "authentication 

#1

	Tony Hansen
	[email-masked]

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From: Ken Murchison <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 09:24:33 -0400

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From: Alexey Melnikov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:21:21 +0100

Alexey

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From: Ken Murchison <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 10:41:16 -0400

#2

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From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:02:06 -0700

With chair hat off, Kurt

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From: Morteza Ansari <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 12:02:50 -0700

#2.

Cheers,
Morteza

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From: Tony Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 23:22:11 -0400

#1

	Tony Hansen
	[email-masked]