John,
The way I understand it, an RFC is only historic(al) if the
technology
it defines is no longer in use.
Well, as Iljitsch mail pointed out, some things (3152
Delegation of IP6.ARPA) are moved to Historic when the IETF
wants people to stop using them ...'
I think his email read "(Obsoleted by RFC3596)" not historic, which I
confirmed at the rfc-editor site. I have read several RFC's that requested
historic status for other rfc's and the primary reason given every time was
that the technology was no longer in use. See RFC 1360 section 4.1.6. for a
definition of historic.
An obsolete RFC means the technology is still being used, but some
part of the specification (obsolete RFC) has been updated. An
obsolete RFC can still be a standard as the RFC that
obsoletes it may
not change the protocol at all. One example of this is RFC
3912 which
is the RFC that obsoletes your example (RFC 954) - read
3192's abstract for more detail.
This is of course only my understanding.
If only part has been updated, then the RFC doing the update
should say 'Updates RFC xyz', I think ...
But that's what it means to be obsolete - that you've been updated. It
doesn't mean broken or wrong, it means older version - so the RFC's are
already doing what you suggest because "obsoleted by RFC 808" is the same as
"updated by RFC 808".
Nick
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