Re: [I18ndir] Time to revise RFC 2978 (charset registrations)?

[Asmus Freytag <[e-mail]>]

I would start with (3), identifying
(a) the cobwebs and other things that need obvious attention
(b) additions that may be needed/wise (like the function of charsets in 
the age of Unicode)

With a concrete draft (even one where some edits are left as outline) it 
should be much easier to see what kind of in-depth review is needed (2) 
and whether this looks like enough of a gain to get AD support (1).

A key function of a well maintained registry isn't necessarily in adding 
lots of novel charsets, but also in making sure existing/historical 
charsets are documented.

A./

On 8/25/2020 1:28 PM, John C Klensin wrote:
>
> --On Tuesday, August 25, 2020 15:41 -0400 John Levine
> <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>> In article <60280974B9488C6271DDB2D4@PSB> you write:
>>> On the optimistic, but perhaps deluded, theory that this
>>> directorate is still functional, perhaps we have some advice
>>> for the ADs about what to do about this erratum and whether
>>> it is time to revise RFC 2978 as suggested below?
>> You'd hope this would be pretty easy, wouldn't it.  Might be
>> nice to update this part, too:
>>
>>     Charset registrations will be posted in the anonymous FTP
>> file
>> "ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/character-sets"
>> and all
> Yep.  I didn't do a careful reading, partially because that felt
> like step 3 as in
>
> (1) Check here (and with Ned and, if he is not reading this,
> Martin) and see if there are any reasons to not do so and if
> there would be AD support for an AD-sponsored document with
> minimum fuss.  That includes being sure that, if Alexey had some
> reason for his "unlikely to be revised" statement that we
> haven't considered, we know about it and can consider it.
>
> (2) Probably also from this list, figure out whether a draft new
> version would have sufficient reviewers who understand the
> subject matter to make submission of such a revision draft
> plausible.  If there are competent and willing reviewers around
> W3C (use in media types) or other parts of the MIME community,
> so much the better.  And see if Ned or the RFC Editor have the
> XML of RFC 2978 or at least draft-freed-charset-regist-03 around.
>
> (3) If there are positive answers at the first two steps, go
> through the RFC carefully, fold in the errata, and clean out
> obsolete statements (I have no idea if the "X-" issue is the
> only one because I didn't look), dead references (such as the
> one above), and similar things.
>
> Of the three, I think the third is actually the easiest.  On the
> other hand, without having clear agreement about the
> desirability of doing this and AD willingness to push it
> through, I believe it would be a waste of time.
>
>> Also willing to help smith what I'd hope would be a limited
>> number of words.
> Ack.  And thanks.
>
>      john
>