[Cbor] Re: CDE next steps (Re: Reminder: CBOR WG Virtual Meeting on 2024-12-11)

["lgl island-resort.com" <[e-mail]>]

Seems time to conclude that dCBOR is the only use case for ALDR and that there are no substantial examples of a threat to CDE. We’ve been working this for about a year, and little has emerged. Also, canonical/deterministic encoding has been in use for over a decade without much concern over threats.

Maybe dCBOR seemed a threat at first, but it didn’t turn out to be so.


> On Dec 19, 2024, at 12:29 PM, Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> On 19. Dec 2024, at 19:35, lgl island-resort.com <[e-mail]> wrote:
>> 
>> I’m looking for explicit concrete examples that show that ALDR is crucial.

Carsten, I find the tactics you’ve used below to be distortions and disrespectful.

> Laurence, I don’t have a problem with you looking for such examples.
> However, you finding some is not a prerequisite to a concept like ALDR being an essential component of making CDE universal.

This seems like deflection and reversal as an argument tactic. My request has always been for you to provide examples.Here, you are trying to reverse it and put it on me.

> Note that there is absolutely no burden for you being created by explaining this concept to those who want to know.
> I don’t think it is a good use of our time to try creating an unsurmountable proof that “ALDR is crucial”, where “unsurmountable” is defined as “Laurence likes it”.

This misrepresents my position. I haven’t asked for proof—only for examples and use cases. It is reasonable for WG participants to request examples and use cases.

This is less about what I like and more about feature justification and WG consensus.

> Explaining the concept in an appendix of CDE is beneficial for enabling a common deterministic encoding, extracting and neutralizing all the application-specific variance from Section 4.2 of RFC 8949.
> Why are you wasting all this time trying to prevent us from saying this?

This seems like another attempt at reversal. You could have agreed that there were minimal use cases and threat examples a long time ago.


I’d like to find a way out of this. I don’t think there's much more I can do other than think it through carefully and be as clear as I can.

LL