----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Touch" <touch(_at_)isi(_dot_)edu>
To: "Sam Hartman" <hartmans-ietf(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu>
Cc: <iab(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>; <dcrocker(_at_)bbiw(_dot_)net>;
<ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 10:11 AM
Perhaps we're not talking about an API, or even an abstract API, but
just the "application interface" (or just "upper layer service"
specification).
RFC793 is a great example that a protocol provides a service, and that
service needs to be explained - and that explaining it does NOT need to
be done in a specific language.
Not a specific language, no, but in a highly recognisable could-be-a-language,
at least for those of us old enough to recall the GoTo-less programming that
preceded Object-Oriented programming. I could easily translate all those
If-Then-Else and Return into (almost) any program language of the day
(but not, perhaps, APL).
And yes, it is still one of the great RFC; is that because it describes
something that became rather popular or is it because it describes
something so well that popularity was inevitable?
Tom Petch
Joe
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