Re: normative and non-normative references

To be clear, I don't want to force the issue. For some of our other  
documents, there are clear non-normative references. I.e., references  
that could be dropped without affecting the reading of the spec text  
itself or the design of the language. It helps to mark those clearly,  
in my experience.

If you do not feel that there are any such references in your  
document, then omitting the label is fine, IMHO. You think people  
cannot discard any of the references and that's the default for me  
when reading a spec (i.e., I presume its design or spec text  
significant unless marked non-normative or informative).

If you, upon reflection, think that some of your references are so  
discardable, or want to include a reference to something for  
illustration or further reading purposes (which I don't think is a  
bad idea), then you should have an informative references section.

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Monday, 9 March 2009 12:01:34 UTC