Re: Netscape vs. Digest (?)

The public statement by Netscape on Digest in response to Larry
Masinter's query at the Montreal IETF's meeting on Netscape's support for 
Digest meeting was made by Phil Karlton, of Netscape.

There have been a number of messages which Phil finds offensive in nature,
that appear to refer to him (though not by name).
Those of you (most) who do not know Phil (as I do; I've known him for
12 or 13 years, and worked with him very closely for a number of years)
should not be making statements like "standards cop", or "marketing exec",
with a derogative connotation, as has been done on NO first-hand information.

Phil Karlton is neither a standards cop or marketing person: Phil is a very 
fine engineer and systems designer.  I worked closely with Phil on the X 
Window System, which a number of you may have in front of you; he is one 
of the key technical contributors both to the design and in the implementation
of the X11 sample server, which formed the basis for (at this date) all 
commercial implementations of X; his is co-author of the X11 paper, 
for example.  His integrity is beyond question in my extensive experience.

His background includes crypto, and is involved in SSL, etc.

I've recently talked to him about digest, and he has valid concerns
that we are trying to resolve to his satisfaction. Things are going on behind
the scenes to see if we can make Phil comfortable with Digest.

But impuning Phil (or anyone's) technical capabilities (or integrity) in 
a public technical forum is very inappropriate, particularly when you don't 
know the person.

You can complain about Phil not raising his
concerns and comments on the mailing list and at the proper times 
(though he did state the result of his concerns in public at the Montreal 
meeting; I hold myself partially at fault to not have pushed to address 
his reservations then), but I personally don't believe he is grinding 
any corporate ax in his statements, knowing him as well as I do.

				- Jim Gettys

Received on Thursday, 5 September 1996 13:15:40 UTC