Re: [Tools-discuss] .txt? [I-D Action: draft-xxx.txt]

Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> Tue, 29 June 2021 13:09 UTC

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From: Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org>
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Subject: Re: [Tools-discuss] .txt? [I-D Action: draft-xxx.txt]
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>> […] And figuring out how to put RFC references into v3 was also more convoluted han in v2.
> 
> […]
> 
> b) It's just a slightly different syntax (a standard one instead of a
> what actually was a hack).

This sentence(†) is a nice demonstration for the confusion in this space.

As a format for the publishing process (RPC), having a standards-based mechanism is good.  (The references don’t make it to the published RFC, as they have been expanded by then, but the process may still benefit.)

As a format for authoring, making the input vastly more complicated in the name of some lofty goal (here: standards conformance) is exactly the leading symptom of the v3 development process.  Offering a bespoke, efficient(*) way of keyboarding IETF document references is exactly the right way to handle this, at least for people still authoring in XML.

Grüße, Carsten

(†) I have removed the attribution, because this observation is not about a single person.  It is about the groupthink that derailed some of the v3 process.

(*) In case that isn’t clear: Efficiency here is all about saving time for the author while continuing to achieve a high quality result.