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Re: Making RFC2119 key language easier to Protocol Readers

2013-01-15 07:20:34
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On 01/15/2013 04:54 AM, Abdussalam Baryun wrote:
Hi Marc Petit-Huguenin,

I agree that we need to be able to make complex protocol's readable in
IETF, That is why I am doing an update ID for the RFC2119, I know many
don't think it is a right thing to do, but I think maybe in future while 
making new versions of the update draft I will get to better discussions,

Changing RFC 2119 would perhaps permit to manage more complex protocols, but
this will delay the problem, not fix it.  Perhaps there is no other solution
than using formal languages when going beyond a threshold of complexity, and
that definitively not something that will be done at the IETF.

But perhaps there could be enough interest to create an IRTF working group, on
the subject of writing specifications for complex protocols.


AB ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 03:21:41 -0800

I think there are cases of standards of extreme complexity, such as SIP, 
where such profiles may be useful, because otherwise interoperability 
cannot be achieved.

I would not call SIP a standard of extreme complexity, but anyway there is 
more and more protocols on a similar complexity - just two protocols that I
am working with currently - RSTP 2.0 and RELOAD - are of similar
complexity.

But perhaps the lesson for the IETF here is slightly different - don't 
design standards which allow that degree of complexity in the first
place.

There is no simple solution to a complex problem, so as the problems we try
to solve increase in complexity, so are our solutions to them.  But perhaps
you are right in a way.  Perhaps the problem is simply that RFC 2119, and
the issues I and other see with the approach in using as little of the
keywords as possible, was designed for a time when problems - and solutions
- were simpler.  Perhaps RFC 2119 imposes an upper limit on the complexity
that a protocol developed with it can reach, and we are just hitting this
threshold more and more often.

I am not saying that it is a bad thing - I certainly like simple
protocols, but perhaps the IETF is simply the wrong place for developing
complex protocols.

- -- 
Marc Petit-Huguenin
Email: marc(_at_)petit-huguenin(_dot_)org
Blog: http://blog.marc.petit-huguenin.org
Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/petithug
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