At 02:44 02/12/2005, Tim Bray wrote:
On Dec 1, 2005, at 3:16 PM, Keith Moore wrote:
And I will freely admit that I find the notion that a group of people
designing global infrastructure think it's OK to use ASCII so morally
and and aesthetically offensive that it probably interferes with my
evaluation of the trade-offs.
I will now shut up. It is clearly the case that there is tremendous
resistance within the IETF to leaving their comfy ASCII enclave.
Tim,
"ASCII enclave" is excellent. I felt like you for years. Then RFC
3935 came. I understood it was the same old group of people who
"believe that the existence of the Internet, and its influence on
economics, communication, and education, will help [them] to build
a better human society" and this is why they are to "influence the
way people design, use, and manage the Internet". To do so this group
"uses the English language for its work is because of its utility for
working in a global context.". This is an old religion. ASCII is part
of it. From the very beginning.
You cannot oppose a religion. But you can expose it, so everyone may
knowingly adhere or repudiate it. This is the reason of my RFC 3066
bis saga: the current outcome (simultaneous USG Tunis deal and IESG
approval of the painstakingly trimmed Draft) brought the limitations
I wanted. The appeal underway will clarify the IESG position: is the
IETF exclusive or still possibly inclusive?
This is of key importance because two visions of the Internet oppose.
Most of us share the vision of a functional Internet where our "goal
is connectivity, the tool is the Internet Protocol, and the
intelligence is end to end rather than hidden in the network." (RFC
1958). The vision of your "ASCII enclave" is for them to be the
globalization core of an hardware Internet "a large, heterogeneous
collection of interconnected systems that can be used for
communication of many different types between any interested parties
connected to it." BTW this is quite the same definition, and
resulting objectives, as 47 USC 230 (f)(1) legal US definition:
Internet is "the international computer network of both Federal and
non-Federal interoperable packet switched. data networks."
This is a very consistent, time proven, stakeholders supported
vision. If they do not want to move, I do not think you can change it
without changing of Internet.
jfc
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