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* On 2006.05.25, in <20060526001443.GW3392@xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxx>, * "Zach White" <zwhite-hates-software@xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxx> wrote: > > qmail and courier. Both of those pieces of software have a really nice > feature where you can email user-<something>@domain, and if > user-<something> doesn't exist on the machine the mail will get delivered > to user. In fact, I'm pretty sure that qmail originated this feature, but > I'm too hateful right now to verify that. I know this doesn't mitigate the hate, but it mitigates sendmail's blame share, and gives me an opening to hate. So here goes, even after I promised myself that I wouldn't post to hates-software any more this week. TTBOMK, qmail only originated the conversion of + to -. The feature itself (with a +, not a -) originated at Carnegie-Mellon University in the mid/late-80s as part of the Andrew Messaging System, and became an official part of sendmail later. (My knowledge is admittedly lacking, though, and it could have been Courier responsible for the change.) It would be nice if there were a simple macro pre-bundled with sendmail to let you change it for compatibility reasons. That said, I hate that qmail/courier changed it from + to -. OTOH, maybe it's a sign that it was the right decision that half the web registration apps on the planet disallow you from using + in your address; HATE. But on the third hand, + was never in conflict with common name templates, such that "wonk-admin@xxxxxxx.xxx" would break the "admin" detail, should a user named "wonk" ever show up. I think there's more hate in here somewhere, but I'm tired. -- -D. dgc@xxxxxxxx.xxx NSIT University of Chicago
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