--On tirsdag, juni 03, 2003 17:28:55 -0400 Dean Anderson <dean(_at_)av8(_dot_)com>
wrote:
You indicated that my criticism was incorrect regarding Mr. Klensin's
understanding of the standards process in regards to the description of
the current SMTP Standard. So, now I am confused, and would like to learn
how to correctly evalute the status of IETF Standards.
The following question seems simple enough:
"What is the current standard level RFC describing the SMTP protocol?"
formally, we have two standards-track specifications for the SMTP protocol.
RFC 821 at Standard, and RFC 2821 at Proposed Standard.
The intent is, I believe, that any RFC 2821 client will be RFC 821
compatible, but implementors who care should state which specification they
claim conformance to.
The "delete after 24 months" clause of RFC 2026 is inoperative in practice;
the oldest Proposed Standard is RFC 698, published in 1975.
I have no explanation for the error in RFC 3300; the RFCs in question were
published by the RFC Editor without IETF review.
The first such document to refer to RFC 2821 was RFC 2800.
Harald