Proposal: make init optional

Coming out of the ZIG meeting decided it was time to propose this; that
is make the init PDU optional.

why: two reasons.
  1. by far the main one is that it would allow a good quality Z39.50
     session to be done in one round trip. THat is, a search PDU to
     the server, and a search response with piggy-backed results.
	Note this would closely resemble an HTTP search, but with a
     high quality search and retrieval specification.

  2. the second reason is minor, and it is that it is not needed for
     many (all?) sessions - and is yet another hold on to "older"/OSI
     thinking.  I believe by the way (but no assurances) that my server
     does not require an init - but certainly might break it.


  Note this change requires little or no change to the actual protocol -
the one curious question is what a server that requires an init does when
it receives a search PDU without an init? Choices I can think of are:
  1. send an init failure PDU
  2. send a search failure PDU
  3. Be a good OSI implementation and shut down.
  4. Or I sort of like: send a new generic failure PDU that replaces all
     failure PDUs.

  bob waldstein  wald@lucent.com

Received on Monday, 8 January 2001 09:58:54 UTC