Re: CfC: Adopt ISSUE-101 us-ascii-ref Change Proposal to replace ASCII reference

Maciej Stachowiak, Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:56:31 -0700:

> Perhaps someone should write a Change Proposal that requests a 
> reference to the ECMA PDF. [...]

  UPDATE: I suggest linking to the ECMA-6 homepage [a] instead of 
directly to the PDF [b]. 

This is similar to how HTML5's UNICODE reference [c] links to a 
particular homepage [d] at unicode.org. The ECMA-6 homepage also refers 
to [ANSI X3.4] by stating the following: "This Ecma publication is also 
approved as ISO/IEC 646." (ANSI X3.4 being a predecessor of ISO/IEC 646 
[e].)

[a] 
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-006.htm
[b] 
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/Ecma-006.pdf
[c] http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/references.html#refsUNICODE
[d] http://www.unicode.org/versions/
[e] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_646#History

	UPDATED proposal hereby submitted:

SUMMARY
  Replace HTML5's current ASCII reference [1] with a link to 
  the ECMA-6 homepage [2].
RATIONALE
    The ECMA-6 homepage [2] offers free download of ECMA-6 – "also
  approved as ISO/IEC 646" – in PDF format [3]. This is similar to
  how HTML5’s UNICODE link refers to a homepage at unicode.org,
  from which one must navigate oneself to the relevant version.
    By contrast, HTML5's current reference is the 103 pages long
  plain text version of RFC1345 [1], which only at page 47 has 18
  lines about ASCII - including an ASCII table, some aliases for
  the 'ASCII' name plus references (but no links) to real ASCII 
  specs, including the 'pay-walled' ANSI_X3.4-1968 and 3rd edition
  of ECMA-6 [&alias ISO_646.irv:1991]. Readers will have problems
  seeing in what way RFC1345 is relevant, and in what way it 
  (including the other 102 pages) is not.
DETAILS
  Replace the reference to [1] with a reference to [2].
IMPACT
  Positive Effects
    * the ECMA-6 homepage gives free access to a PDF with ECMA-6.
    * the ECMA-6 homepage explains briefly what it is and how it
      is relevant, presenting ECMA-6 as parallel to ISO/IEC 646.
    * the ECMA-6 spec is a self contained reference, independent
      from other (non-online) resources.
    * a homepage link instead of big file link has advantages:
      - fast access
      - forward looking, in case of standard updates
  Negative Effects
    * none
CONFORMANCE CLASSES CHANGES
  None
RISKS
  None
REFERENCES
  [1] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1345.txt
  [2] 
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-006.htm

Received on Thursday, 24 June 2010 17:43:42 UTC