Monday, September 14, 2009

Meeting people protocol

There is a protocol when you meet people. It many ways it is similar to a protocol like SMTP, but with several redundant elements. For example the opening request can be "hello", which is in fact the word that the HELO that starts an SMTP session is based on the word "hello". Other words may be used, like "hi" or "hiya".

One trouble with this protocol is that there is not regulated by a standards body, there is no RFC, and any documentation you may find is non-authoritative and may contradict other documents.

Often the next step after the initial protocol exchange is "how are you?". Although this is framed as a question, the common answer is "fine, thankyou", which when converted to a boolean is often False. Despite that it remains part of the protocol. It is often followed by a returned "how are you?", to which the same response is expected.

No comments:

Post a Comment