Just a few final observations, then I'll bug out of the discussion.
1. Some folks scoff at the idea of reading I-Ds and RFCs on a PDA, yet they
think it's necessary to accommodate those who would read them on 1950s-style
teletypes or other old, outdated equipment. We say that lines should be, what,
76 characters long? Why? What about 40 characters per line? Then I could
read the RFCs on my old Commodore 64 in addition to my PDA. ;-) What *is*
the lowest common denominator, anyway?
2. RFCs have a limited lifetime. RFC 1 might be 32 years old, but it's
probably only relevant to historians. Historians will probably find the tools
they need to view old documents. So, if RFCs are maintained in a format that
outlives the technology documented in the RFCs, then there's no problem, right?
(Speaking from the aspect of archives.) Anyone know how long ASCII will be
around?
--
Doug Sauder