ReSpec and how it gets used

As one of the ReSpec maintainers, I am often concerned that changes we make
to the implementation will break stuff.  And given some recent events, I
think that concern is merited.

One question that keeps coming up is "how is ReSpec used?"  Is it only used
by document editors and the publication system, is it also used by the
working groups and reviewers (in that they are looking at live documents),
or is it used even more broadly?

We know that ReSpec is used by communities outside of the W3C, for example.

My basic concern can be characterized as "if we start using [insert new
cool browser feature] in ReSpec, will our constituents still be able to use
ReSpec?"  Or, to turn that around, "Are there people using ancient user
agents actively accessing live documents written with ReSpec?"

So, a few questions for the group:

   1. Do you have a feel for how ReSpec is being used?
   2. Is there a policy about how far "back" we need to continue supporting
   user agents?
   3. Is there a way we can look at the W3C web server logs to get a feel
   for what sorts of user agents are retrieving ReSpec from the W3C servers?
   4. Would it be reasonable to provide some diagnostic information about
   the user agent when we make a request to specref (so that we can do
   analysis on usage)?  Maybe only the first time a specific document is
   requested (e.g., set a cookie)?



-- 
Shane McCarron
Projects Manager, Spec-Ops