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Re: IETF and APIs

2011-03-29 08:44:18

    Marc> On 03/29/2011 01:28 PM, Eric Burger wrote:
    >> Would we not be better off just asking (mandating?) at least one
    >> open source implementation?  That effort would produce a de facto
    >> API.

    Marc> What you need is a reference implementation (i.e. an
    Marc> inefficient but complete implementation, with a license that
    Marc> permits at least to see the source and generate a binary) AND
    Marc> a test suite.

Others have pointed out some of the issues with this approach.  However,
having been involved in a fairly widely used reference implementation
(MIT Kerberos) for over 10 years and having watched it try and evolve
from a reference implementation to a platform component, I do not
believe that  the sorts of things you want out of a reference
implementation are what you want out of a platform component. 

A reference implementation focuses on demonstrating a protocol and being
able to develop and debug that protocol and understand it.

A platform component focuses on extensibly making the aspects of the
protocol that can be building blocks available to the platform.
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