Re: [apps-discuss] I-D Action: draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-01.txt

["Murray S. Kucherawy" <[e-mail]>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Peter Saint-Andre
> Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 1:42 PM
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: [apps-discuss] I-D Action: draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-01.txt
> 
> On 10/18/11 2:33 PM, [e-mail] wrote:
> > A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts
> > directories. This draft is a work item of the Applications Area
> > Working Group Working Group of the IETF.
> >
> > Title           : Deprecating Use of the "X-" Prefix in
> > Application Protocols Author(s)       : Peter Saint-Andre D. Crocker
> > Mark Nottingham Filename        : draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-01.txt
> > Pages           : 12 Date            : 2011-10-18
> 
> The diff is here:
> 
> http://tools.ietf.org/rfcdiff?url2=draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-01
> 
> Thanks to Alexey Melnikov for the review that prompted this revision.

Hi Peter,

I like this a lot. Simple, to the point, excellent delivery of the history.

After re-reading it from top-to-bottom, the only gripe I have is that, in the second paragraph of Section 1, the use of "advancement" feels ambiguous.  Was said "advancement" because the experimental namespace leaked into the standard namespace, or because what we might expect as "advancement" (i.e., registration) has been more expensive than it's worth?

The idea of advancement from non-standard space to standard space to me suggests the dropping of "X-", but that's exactly what you're saying isn't happening when it should.

The question is really answered in the appendices quite clearly, but it seems having to go there to figure out what this paragraph means suggests a bit more detail here is needed.

I suggest:

   Although in theory the "X-" convention was a good way to avoid
   collisions (and attendant interoperability problems) between standard
   parameters and non-standard parameters, in practice the costs
   associated with the advancement of non-standard parameters into the
   standards space, without proper conversion and registration, have outweighed
   the benefits. Therefore this document deprecates the "X-" convention for
   most application protocols and makes specific recommendations about how to
   proceed in a world without the distinction between standard and non-standard
   parameters.

...or something like that.

Otherwise, nice work!

-MSK