On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 8:27 PM, Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter@stpeter.im>wrote: > Dear IAB authors: > > Do you think that draft-iab-extension-recs has applicability to W3C work > on formats and languages? > As someone who has followed the "distributed extensibility" debate from afar, I think draft-iab-extension-recs Section 3.4 "Protocol Variations"<http://bit.ly/rJvXLq>applies to the issue. I think the section can be read (at least by someone like me who is not steeped in the issues) as a repudiation of, or at least strong advisory against, distributed extensibility. Here is the pertinent advice: "In particular, the IAB considers it an essential principle of the protocol development process that *only one SDO maintains design authority for a given protocol*, with that SDO having ultimate authority over the allocation of protocol parameter code-points and over defining the intended semantics, interpretation, and actions associated with those code-points." (emphasis added) This language is actually quoted from RFC 5704 "Uncoordinated Protocol Development Considered Harmful". As I understand it "distributed extensibility" is defined<http://bit.ly/vOn20K>as "The ability for a language to be extended by multiple parties *who do not explicitly coordinate with each other*." (emphasis added) I think it is interesting that the W3C (or at least the TAG) think that uncoordinated *extensibility *is a good idea, at least in some circumstances, while the IETF seems to feel that uncoordinated *development*is generally a bad idea. I googled to see if anyone had discussed the possible conflict between RFC 5704 and "distributed extensibility", but I didn't find anything. I don't mean to reopen the Issue-41 can of worms, but a brief discussion of "distributed extensibility" (possibly in section 3.4) in an RFC on protocol extensibility seems warranted. At the very least, a discussion of what MAY be extended in a protocol *without* coordination vs. what SHOULD be extended *with coordination* would be very useful. -- Nick
Received on Thursday, 3 November 2011 21:22:02 UTC