On Mon, Nov 21, 2005 at 09:54:27AM +0100,
Julien(_dot_)Maisonneuve(_at_)alcatel(_dot_)com
<Julien(_dot_)Maisonneuve(_at_)alcatel(_dot_)com> wrote
a message of 25 lines which said:
The IETF is probably the ONLY meaningful organisation in the world
that insists on using ascii-only specifications. Any rationalization
of that practise should try to explain why we are so exceptional
IETF is special (may be not "exceptional") in many respects and,
personally, I would appreciate is stays special:
1) IETF output (the RFCs) can be freely retrieved, distributed and
used. Only the W3C and Oasis are better on that respect. It means that
the RFC format has to be readable by many people, not all of them
being ready to pay (in money or in RAM upgrades) to get the latest
gizmo.
2) IETF emphasises readability of its documents. RFC are meaned to be
read and understood by normal people. This is in contrast with ITU or
ANSI documents. They don't need a standard format because nobody
actually use their documents, anyway.
3) IETF attendance is quite open (here, IETF is really
exceptional). So, its members are a wide and diverse community and it
is difficult to find a format which is both better than ASCII and
widely available.
So, saying "Everybody do it that way, we should, too" is ignoring many
IETF idiosyncrasies.
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