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RE: Pointing to IANA registries

2010-04-18 00:54:17
 

-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On 
Behalf Of Julian Reschke
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 3:05 AM
To: IETF Discussion
Subject: Pointing to IANA registries

Hi,

I was recently pointed at:

<http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226#section-4.2>:

       1) The name of the registry (or sub-registry) being 
created and/or
          maintained.  The name will appear on the IANA web 
page and will
          be referred to in future documents that need to allocate a
          value from the new space.  The full name (and 
abbreviation, if
          appropriate) should be provided.  It is highly 
desirable that
          the chosen name not be easily confusable with the name of
          another registry.  When creating a sub-registry, 
the registry
          that it is a part of should be clearly identified.  When
          referring to an already existing registry, 
providing a URL to
          precisely identify the registry is helpful.  All such URLs,
          however, will be removed from the RFC prior to final
          publication.  For example, documents could contain: [TO BE
          REMOVED: This registration should take place at the 
following
          location:  http://www.iana.org/assignments/foobar-registry]

I have to say that I think that this is very very wrong.

Reasons:

1) Cool URIs do not change (<http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI>).

2) If RFCs that define a registry can not carry a link to the 
registry, 
the reader is actually forced to look up the registry using a search 
engine. I think it's *far* more better to be optimistic and 
provide the 
actual link, saving the reader one indirection step.

3) Also note: "It is highly desirable that the chosen name 
not be easily 
confusable with the name of another registry." If that was "MUST be 
unique", instead of this handwaving (sorry...), then we already would 
have the necessary ingredient for a stable URI.

Instead, we should instruct IANA to actually maintain 
registry URIs they 
have assigned. Note that this does not rule out format changes or 
reorganizations; HTTP redirects exist for a reason.

+1.

IANA (and the IETF) should certainly be capable of maintaining a stable URL.

-d


Best regards, Julian

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