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Re: [apps-discuss] "X-" revisited

Ben Niven-Jenkins <ben@niven-jenkins.co.uk> Mon, 27 June 2011 21:21 UTC

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From: Ben Niven-Jenkins <ben@niven-jenkins.co.uk>
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Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:21:45 +0100
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To: Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter@stpeter.im>
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Subject: Re: [apps-discuss] "X-" revisited
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Peter,

On 27 Jun 2011, at 19:36, Peter Saint-Andre wrote:

> Based on comments received to date, I've published a heavily-revised
> version of the "X-" proposal:
> 
> http://www.ietf.org/id/draft-saintandre-xdash-00.txt
> 
> Further feedback is welcome!

One question. The draft concludes that:

   The foregoing considerations lead to the conclusion that segregating
   non-standard parameters into an "X-" ghetto has few if any benefits,
   and has at least one significant cost in terms of interoperability.
   Therefore, this document recommends against the creation of new names
   with the special "X-" prefix in application protocols produced within
   the IETF.

Is the guidance aimed only at documents produced within the IETF or is the intention that it is more general guidance. For example is it saying that someone defining a private extension that they do not intend to (at least initially) to bring to the IETF should still avoid use of "X-" because forseeing the future is hard and although at definition time they do not intend to standardise it, at some future point that might happen and it could cause the interoperability problems outlined in the draft?

Thanks
Ben

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