Consider the problem of answering the question "Is the RFC on my screen
or printer the same as your document? Was either version edited by
someone or something?"
Then no matter what DTD verifiers the RFC Editor runs, we will have
people saying "RFC 98765432 says blah de blah right here on this
sheet of paper" because they printed it with a User Friendly XML
printer that fixes spelling errors and deletes bits that infringe on
Microsoft's business plans and the RIAA's intellectual property.
Vernon, if you honestly believe this to be true, then the only format you
could possibly advocate is printed hardcopy locked up in a vault.
Even ASCII documents are subject to bit rot, be it on media, during
transmission, while in memory, etc.
--lyndon