- From: Ian Jacobs <ij@W3.org>
- Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:58:09 -0500
- To: Noah Mendelsohn <nrm@arcanedomain.com>
- Cc: Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>, Larry Masinter <masinter@adobe.com>, "www-tag@w3.org" <www-tag@w3.org>
On 25 Apr 2012, at 11:51 AM, Noah Mendelsohn wrote: > > On 4/25/2012 12:29 PM, Thomas Roessler wrote: >> Objection. >> >> Referencing a document that is explicitly not intended to be referenced strikes me as a relatively obvious spec bug that, in this specific case, escaped review. That's unfortunate. I don't think I've heard anybody suggest that I-Ds are useful normative references for anything. >> >> Hence, I don't understand how this gets even close to the level of a process question that needs to be put in front of the AB. > > I thought that somewhere in the W3C process was a clause that, put informally, boils down to: "The referent of any normative reference from a W3C draft or recommendation must be at a level of stability that is, at worst, one level flakier than the referring document." > > I can't offhand find where such a rule is set down, but Larry's comment seems to be about the general effectiveness of W3C guidelines in this area. It's also a matter of judgement, and maybe something on which we need a ruling, as to when if ever references to IETF IDs from W3C working drafts or Recs would/should be acceptable per such rules. There is a requirement for a transition request (e.g., for CR [1]). You need to answer this question: "Does this specification have any normative references to W3C specifications that are not yet Candidate Recommendations? Note: In general, documents do not advance to Recommendation with normative references to W3C specifications that are not yet Recommendations." There is also this in the manual of style [2]: "Normative references should be to stable and mature resources (e.g., only Recommendations)." Earlier in that doc it also says: "If a reference is a W3C Recommendation track technical report that has not reached Recommendation, state in the References section that it is "work in progress." There is no _rule_ against normative references to unstable materials. This is a matter of good practices and the transition reporting requirement. Ian [1] http://services.w3.org/xslt?xmlfile=http://www.w3.org/2005/08/01-transitions.html&xslfile=http://www.w3.org/2005/08/transitions.xsl&docstatus=cr-tr [2] http://www.w3.org/2001/06/manual/#normative -- Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org) http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/ Tel: +1 718 260 9447
Received on Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:58:24 UTC