Re: Protocol feature sets and specification clarity

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Hi Larry,

Thanks for the reminder. For the next published versions of
draft-ietf-xmpp-3920bis and draft-ietf-xmpp-3921bis I shall name and
define the features as you suggest. I think that is more productive than
having a separate document (which no one will ever look at).

Peter

On 9/23/09 11:16 PM, Larry Masinter wrote:
> In setting up a HTML testing task force, I wanted to bring
> up some work I did earlier in IETF on a proposal to formalize
> the notion of what "independent interoperable implementations
> of every feature".
> 
> I'd made a proposal for trying to formalize interoperability
> reports
> 
> http://larry.masinter.net/draft-ietf-newtrk-interop-reports-00.html
> 
> and Peter Saint-Andre built one for the XMPP protocol.
> 
> http://xmpp.org/internet-drafts/draft-saintandre-xmpp-feature-set-00.html
> 
> While perhaps too formal for HTML testing, having a clear
> definition of "feature" and what is or isn't a normative
> requirement for producers of HTML and consumers of HTML
> (or more specialized roles such as editor, summarizer,
> translator, spider, validator, etc.) might be a useful
> way to also understand spec quality.
> 
> Larry
> --
> http://larry.masinter.net
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Saint-Andre [mailto:stpeter@stpeter.im] 
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 8:17 AM
> To: LMM@acm.org
> Subject: Re: I-D Action:draft-saintandre-xmpp-feature-set-00.txt
> 
> I like the idea of feature names, since that makes them easier to
> reference. One thing I discovered while working on the feature set is
> that it forces you to be clearer about the features themselves in the
> specs. I wonder if it makes sense to have a "feature index" in each spec
> so that implementors can easily find the referenced features. I may
> experiment with that for the next revision of the XMPP bis drafts.
> 
> Do you think a feature set should also describe how the feature can be
> tested? For example, the features you list below are indeed testable
> since you (as a client) can try to include disallowed characters in a
> domain name or try to set a domain identifier that is longer than 1023
> bytes. The server to which you're connected should enforce the rule.
> 
> Granted, it's even more work to specify all that, but that's what we're
> here for, no? :)
> 
> Larry Masinter wrote:
>> Interesting. Much more elaborate than I had imagined; I was thinking more
>> of a list 
>>
>> Feature: "nameprep-domain-identifier"
>>   spec: rfc3920bis/section 3.2
>>   requirement: does domain identifier conform to Nameprep profile of Stringprep
>>   mandatory: Client - SHOULD, Server - MUST
>>
>> Feature "max-domain-identifier-length"
>>   spec: rfc 3920bis/section 3.2
>>   requirement: domain identifier portion of XMPP address not exceed 1023 bytes
>>   mandatory: all roles: MUST
>>
>>
>> Features should be things you can test in an interoperability test, though.
>> I don't know how to test those things, exactly.
>>
>>
>> Larry
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Peter Saint-Andre [mailto:stpeter@stpeter.im] 
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 10:57 AM
>> To: LMM@acm.org
>> Subject: FW: I-D Action:draft-saintandre-xmpp-feature-set-00.txt
>>
>> FYI.
>>
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>> A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
>>
>>  Title           : A Feature Set for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
>>  Author(s)       : P. Saint-Andre
>>  Filename        : draft-saintandre-xmpp-feature-set-00.txt
>>  Pages           : 17
>>  Date            : 2007-10-31
>>
>> This document defines a protocol feature set for the Extensible
>> Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), in accordance with the
>> concepts and formats proposed by Larry Masinter within the NEWTRK
>> Working Group.
>>
>> A URL for this Internet-Draft is:
>> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-saintandre-xmpp-feature-set-00.txt 
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Received on Thursday, 24 September 2009 16:06:50 UTC