ietf-dkim
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Re: [ietf-dkim] ISSUE: dkim-overview -- normative statements

2007-07-14 13:05:55
Many thanks to Dave for bringing this up.

At 2:55 PM -0400 7/14/07, Dave Crocker wrote:
The overview document states that it is seeking Informational RFC status. Further, it does not include the usual citation and statement that normative vocabulary is used to assert normative requirements.

Nonetheless, the document has quite a number of apparently normative statements -- including some in uppercase -- such as:
. . .

This seems anomalous and raises a line of questions:

If the apparently normative statements are actually trying to be normative and are reasonable, has the intent of the document changed?

Even though I've written some portion of the language in the document, I have mixed feelings about this issue. Some of the apparently-normative statements I like and some I don't -- and I don't know which ones I wrote, so that's not the issue.

Beyond being a summary of DKIM, the document also has become something of a higher-level "system specification". As such, some of the normative language really pertains to the higher-level integration of DKIM into an operational email service and well could be extremely useful for guiding design, implementation and deployment of DKIM. I think that's a good thing, but I think we need to resolve whether this document is making architectural, normative specification or whether it is providing tutorial exemplars.


I think it would be fine to make this a standards-track document with normative language.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Domain Assurance Council
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