Re: [Tools-discuss] Why post text and not XML?

On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 10:18 AM John C Klensin <john-ietf@jck.com> wrote:

>
>
> --On Sunday, March 17, 2024 13:09 +0100 Julian Reschke
> <julian.reschke=40gmx.de@dmarc.ietf.org> wrote:
>
> > Am 16.03.2024 um 21:50 schrieb Eric Rescorla:
> >> ...
> >> I don't much care about the comments, but I would observe
> >> that a consequence of having the XML kept private like this
> >> is to make it more difficult for others to work on the
> >> documents, either by submitting diffs to the text or by
> >> forking them and making their own documents.
>
> Again focusing on IETF Stream standards track documents, "fork
> and make their own" is an excellent way to create confusion in a
> WG (or other discussion) about which document is being discussed
> and how it is different from the other(s).
>

That confusion is prevented not by the uniqueness of the text
but rather by the name of the document and by our other
document management processes.

In any case, I think it's more useful to focus on the common case
of providing diffs to a document, which is plainly easier if one
has the source XML (or MD). This is especially true for newcomers
who are used to open source processes where this is simply
the norm.

> ...or understanding why something changed between revisions.
>
> Something better accomplished, IMO, by an explicit change log
> that identifies and, as needed, explains substantive changes.
> We've never required those on an IETF-wide basis (although ADs
> occasionally have done so with "their" WGs), but it has become
> the custom in many WGs.  By contrast, suppose an author makes a
> change in the XML, does not provide a change log, and either
> does not include a comment about the nature of the change or
> suppresses those comments before posting.  In what way would
> access to the XML provide more information about changes,
> especially why they occurred, than, e.g., a diff on the text
> form.
>

It's not access to the XML that provides this information but rather
tying changes to the source code to explicit activity in the repository
in the form of commits and PRs.

-Ekr

> best,
>    john
>
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