On 8/16/02 at 11:24 AM +0000, Charles Lindsey wrote:
Well reclassifying a few items into or out of the obsolete category is not
necessarily "new technical work" is it? Surely that is just tidying up.
Nope, that's new technical work. A Draft Standards documents existing
practice. It doesn't say how things should be.
OTOH, if a major change in email is shortly going to happen, namely hte
internationalization of addr-specs, then it does not seem to be the right
time to be bringing out a new standard that merely re-establishes the old
system.
Two things:
1. This is the way the IETF works. We add on to the old system with
new Proposed Standards, we document the old system with Draft and
Full Standards. It seems perfectly "right". Other standards bodies
might operate differently.
2. If there is a major change in e-mail, it better happen in a way
that doesn't invalidate the old system. That was what was great about
MIME: Every MIME message is a perfectly valid 822 message, only it
was interpreted differently. Documenting the old system (and it's not
a "new standard") is *exactly* what needs to happen if there is going
to be a major change: It should be perfectly clear for the proposed
change what will conform to the current system.
This is "IETF 101" stuff. Moving to Draft Standard *removes* stuff
from the spec that doesn't correspond to reality. It *never* adds or
changes stuff. Perhaps your message is a good indicator that we
haven't been moving things to Draft Standard nearly enough lately.
pr
--
Pete Resnick <mailto:presnick(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com>
QUALCOMM Incorporated - Direct phone: (858)651-4478, Fax: (858)651-1102