I am surprised at the lack of comment on this I-D on its use of terminology. I
have seen and learnt from many discussions on this list that have teased out
what concept it is we are really talking about (e.g. identity v identifier) and
this I-D seems somewhat weak in that regard.
Thus the summary talks of
'parameters by prefixing the latter '
while the introduction changes that to
'the "X-" convention for named parameters in application protocols '
which is then refined to
'only parameters with textual names, not parameters that are expressed as
numbers'
which seems to me a false dichotomy.
The I-D seems to be conflating the ideas of name and value and a few other
things as well. I know of very few parameters in IETF protocols that do not
have names and cannot recall one where the name is not textual. The I-D seems
to be assuming that the parameter name and the parameter value and so on are
synonymous, identical, equivalent and perhaps a few other things as well, and
having assumed that, then it is sufficient to say that one or other of these
concepts are textual and it is to these that this I-D applies. This seems to me
to be rather too loosely worded to become an RFC.
Tom Petch
----- Original Message -----
From: "The IESG" <iesg-secretary(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
To: "IETF-Announce" <ietf-announce(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Cc: <apps-discuss(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 7:47 PM
Subject: Last Call: <draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-03.txt> (Deprecating Use of
the"X-" Prefix in Application Protocols) to Best Current Practice
The IESG has received a request from the Applications Area Working Group
WG (appsawg) to consider the following document:
- 'Deprecating Use of the "X-" Prefix in Application Protocols'
<draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-03.txt> as a Best Current Practice
The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org mailing lists by 2012-03-15. Exceptionally, comments
may be
sent to iesg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.
Abstract
Historically, designers and implementers of application protocols
have often distinguished between "standard" and "non-standard"
parameters by prefixing the latter with the string "X-" or similar
constructions. In practice, this convention causes more problems
than it solves. Therefore, this document deprecates the "X-"
convention for textual parameters in application protocols.
The file can be obtained via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash/
IESG discussion can be tracked via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash/ballot/
No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.
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