Re: CfC: to publish Encrypted Media Extensions specification as a First Public Working Draft (FPWD)

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Glenn Adams <glenn@skynav.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Robert O'Callahan <robert@ocallahan.org>wrote:
>
>> I do expect URIs, image, media and font formats used on the Web to be
>> fully specified somewhere, and that is standard practice today.
>>
>
> And CDMs will be fully specified somewhere as well.
>

I certainly hope that's the case. If it is, then granting my objection is
hardly any concession at all.


>
>>
>>
>>>    - input method editors
>>>    - geolocation devices
>>>
>>>  These do not affect interop.
>>
>
> Yes they do.
>

Please explain how. I'm not aware of cases where specifying IME behavior
was needed to solve interop problems, even though I've worked on Mozilla
IME code in the past.


>
>> While it is reasonable to define a voluntary registry, it is not
>>> reasonable to require registration or to require that documentation be
>>> fully open. Who would enforce this even if it were defined?
>>>
>>
>> Whoever maintains the registry.
>>
>
> No registry I'm aware of does such a thing. You are naive to believe it
> feasible.
>

For example, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226 defines IANA procedures for
setting up a registry, and supports placing requirements on submissions to
the registry. It explicitly identifies the option of a "Specification
Required" policy:

Values and their meanings must be documented in a permanent and readily
available public specification, in sufficient detail so that
interoperability between independent implementations is possible.

http://www.iana.org/protocols shows that this policy is very widely used.

Rob
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