W3C Referencing Policy [Was: Re: [XBL] Security Concerns]

Hi Ian, Cameron,

I asked Ian Jacobs to clarify the W3C's Referencing Policy in the  
context of this thread (i.e.  "referring to unstable drafts") and  
this is what he reported:

[[
Here is the text [from the W3C Manual of Style]:

<http://www.w3.org/2001/06/manual/#normative>

"Normative references should be to stable and mature resources (e.g.,
only Recommendations)."

Thus, it is not forbidden. Especially when a document is a draft, it
seems unproblematic. The Manual of Style also says:

    'If a reference is a W3C Recommendation track technical report that
     has not reached Recommendation, state in the References section  
that
     it is "work in progress."'

Once the document becomes a Proposed Recommendation, it is ill-advised
to refer to an instable document, as the group is likely to have to wait
until the unstable reference becomes a Proposed Recommendation before it
can continue to advance.
]]

Art
---


On Jan 8, 2007, at 6:19 PM, ext Ian Hickson wrote:

>
> On Thu, 7 Dec 2006, Cameron McCormack wrote:
>>
>> 1.3 Security Concerns
>> =====================
>>
>>   XBL prevents this by requiring that the cookie attribute on the
>>   DocumentWindow interface be set to null.
>>
>> Should there be a reference to http://www.w3.org/TR/Window/ there?
>
> W3C process doesn't allow us to refer to unstable drafts, as I  
> understand
> it, so I don't think we can do that.
>
> -- 
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                ) 
> \._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _ 
> \  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'-- 
> (,_..'`-.;.'
>