How about something a little more generic: URLs. AFAIK, there is an
LDAP URL format, so configuring pine to use URLs for name resolution
could include LDAP.
How this could work: the address book could contain a list of "mailto:"
URLs, "ldap:" (correct tag?) URLs, etc. The user enters naming
information, pine checks it against "mailto:" URLs in the address book;
if there are no matches, pine then begins searching "ldap:" URLs, in
the order they are listed in the address book (this would allow users to
have multiple directories in order of preference).
Directories referenced via "ldap:" URLs could be X.500 or slapd, or
anything else which supports LDAP in the future (whois++, maybe one
day?).
Other URLs which could be usefully used in this context would be
"file:", which would refer to other address books (containing "mailto:",
"ldap:", and "file:" URLs). Another possibility might be "ftp:" or
"http:", with the understanding that the referenced data would itself
contain lists of pine-acceptable URLs.
Adding this support to pine now should make it easier in the future to
add crypto support as well, given the work underway (IETF PKIX, ITU-T,
Netscape, etc.) to use URLs to reference CRLs, ARLs, CA certificates,
etc.
pww
Peter Whittaker [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~] X.500 Specialist
pww@entrust.com [ http://www.entrust.com ] Nortel Secure Networks
Ph: +1 613 765 2064 [ ] P.O. Box 3511, Station C
FAX:+1 613 765 3520 [__________________________] Ottawa, Canada, K1Y 4H7