John,
You make some good points; and, unlike some, I never claim to be right all
the time.
Would you not concede, though, that coders ( should ) write to implement
requirements, which are typically not defined by the coders themselves, but
by their "customers" ? The IETF publishes lots of I-Ds which give
requirements, rather than coding solutions. The people who write these
requirements are not necessarily coders themselves.
In my, limited, coding experience, I don't recall finding ASCII diagrams as
part of the code. Poor diagrammatic capability is one of the problems I
have with ASCII.
I am not trying to push a particular format, just to explore other
possibilities. You previous point about people choosing to use a "copy
that's easier for some people to read" is interesting. Doesn't it imply
that we should consider other formats ? At the least, it implies to me that
ASCII is far from perfect.
IMHO, standards are about far more than writing code; first, and most
importantly, they are about achieving agreement. ( Otherwise we could all
just go off and write whatever code we want. ) This requires a common mind
set, and a suitable level of understanding to form it. I am in favour of
making it as easy as possible for common understanding to be reached. After
all, the subjects are complex enough to understand, without being hampered
by poor communication tools.
Regards,
Graham Travers
Applications Standards Strategist
* Tel: +44 1359 235086
* Mobile: 0780 8502536
* Fax: +44 1359 235087
* HW B279, P.O. Box 200, London, N18 1ZF
* - Email: graham(_dot_)travers(_at_)bt(_dot_)com
-----Original Message-----
From: John Stracke [SMTP:francis(_at_)ECAL(_dot_)COM]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:06 PM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: HTML better for small PDAs
graham(_dot_)travers(_at_)BT(_dot_)COM wrote:
I have people working for me who write I-Ds, and who HATE the
ASCII
format that they are forced to use. So much so, that they have
threatened
never to write another I-D. Do we want to deprive the IETF community of
the
input of experienced technical people ( and, yes, they ARE ! ), because
they
are put off by archaic document formats ?
Possibly, yes--because code is written in ASCII. A case could be made
that
someone who isn't comfortable with ASCII can't write code, and someone who
can't write code should not be writing standards for how other people
should
write code.
I'm aware that there are holes in this argument; but I think the same can
be
said of yours. For example, we don't know who these I-D authors you refer
to
are, so we don't know what I-Ds they've written, or whether their I-Ds
have
been of value to the IETF community. Unless they speak up for themselves,
we
don't know what kind of problems they've had, or how valid they are.
--
/================================================================\
|John Stracke | http://www.ecal.com |My opinions are my own. |
|Chief Scientist |===============================================|
|eCal Corp. |All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't|
|francis(_at_)ecal(_dot_)com|make me happy. |
\================================================================/