IAB approves RFC format-related drafts for publication

[Robert Sparks <[e-mail]>]

On 3 August 2016, the IAB approved the drafts [1] documenting the 
requirements for the new RFC format for publication. The RFC Format 
project goals include:

  * Supporting XML as the unchanging, underlying format
  * Creating TXT, PDF/A-3, and HTML as the outputs
  * Allowing SVG line art (black and white) as per a limited SVG profile
  * Allowing Non-ASCII characters in a controlled fashion

An FAQ about the new RFC Format is available online: 
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rse/format-faq/

With the approval of the drafts, an RFP will be posted shortly covering 
the tools required to make this new format a reality. The RFP will be 
posted on the IETF announce list, rfc-interest, and will be found on the 
IAOC's RFP website (https://iaoc.ietf.org/rfps.html). As the tools are 
developed, tested, and used, all the existing documents will go through 
a -bis process to capture what we learn through implementation. Please 
join [e-mail] to participate in the discussion on the 
new format.

Many thanks to the RFC Format Design Team for their extraordinary efforts!

Nevil Brownlee (ISE), Heather Flanagan (RSE), Tony Hansen, Joe 
Hildebrand, Paul Hoffman, Ted Lemon, Julian Reschke, Adam Roach, Alice 
Russo, Robert Sparks (Tools Team liaison), Dave Thaler

[1] Format Document reading order:

# The big picture

  * Flanagan, H. and N. Brownlee, "RFC Series Format Requirements and
    Future Development", RFC 6949, DOI 10.17487/RFC6949, May 2013,
    <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6949>.

  * Flanagan, H., “RFC Format Framework”, Work in Progress,
    draft-iab-rfc-framework-06
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfc-framework/>, June 2016.

# The underlying vocabulary

  * Hoffman, P., “The ‘XML2RFC’ version 3 Vocabulary”, Work in Progress,
    draft-iab-xml2rfc-04
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-xml2rfc/>, June 2016.

# The outputs

  * Hildebrand, J. and P. Hoffman, “HyperText Markup Language Request
    For Comments Format”, Work in Progress, draft-iab-html-rfc-02
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-html-rfc/>, February 2016.

  * Flanagan, H. “CSS Requirements for RFCs”, Work in Progress,
    draft-iab-rfc-css-01
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfc-css/>, July 2016.

  * Flanagan, H., “Requirements for Plain Text RFCs”, Work in Progress,
    draft-iab-rfc-plaintext-03
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfc-plaintext/>, May 2016.

  * Hansen, T., Masinter, L., and M. Hardy, “PDF for an RFC Series
    Output Document Format”, Work in Progress,
    draft-iab-rfc-use-of-pdf-02
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfc-use-of-pdf/>, May 2016.

  * Brownlee, N., “SVG Drawings for RFCs: SVG 1.2 RFC”, Work in
    Progress, draft-iab-svg-rfc-02
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-svg-rfc/>, February 2016.

# Generalized requirements

  * Flanagan, H., “The Use of non-ASCII Characters in RFCs”, Work in
    Progress, draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-02
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfc-nonascii/>, April 2016.

# Workflow and tools

  * Hildebrand, J. and P. Hoffman, “RFC v3 Prep Tool Description”, Work
    in Progress, draft-iab-rfcv3-preptool-02
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-iab-rfcv3-preptool/>,
    September 2015.

  * Hoffman, P. and T. Hansen, “Examples of the ‘XML2RFC’ Version 2 and
    3 Vocabularies”, Work in Progress, draft-hoffman-rfcexamples-04
    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-hoffman-rfcexamples/>, May
    2015. *Not to be published as an RFC.*