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Re: Question about BCP 14 / RFC 8174

Barry Leiba <barryleiba@computer.org> Tue, 26 August 2025 15:18 UTC

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From: Barry Leiba <barryleiba@computer.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2025 11:17:55 -0400
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Subject: Re: Question about BCP 14 / RFC 8174
To: Nico Williams <nico@cryptonector.com>
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You're not noticing that the OLD text also talks only about IETF
documents by saying "many standards track documents".  The NEW text is
intentionally broader, including all IETF documents -- Informational
and Experimental as well.  That's because we've realized over time
that it's useful to include BCP 14 key words in those also, not just
in standards.

It was not intentional to say that *only* IETF documents use these.
But we're only writing, here, about and for the IETF, and BCP 14 only
explicitly applies to the IETF.

Barry

On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM Nico Williams <nico@cryptonector.com> wrote:
>
> I guess I've been hiding under a rock or something and missed RFC 8174.
> I was... surprised to see that the NEW text specifically refers to "many
> IETF documents" considering that many non-IETF documents also make use
> of BCP 14 terminology.
>
> Of course anyone making use of BCP 14 outside IETF documents can just
> either not mind or elide the IETF specificity, so maybe "who cares".
> But I find this change surprising, and odd.
>
> Nico
> --
>

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