| Internet-Draft | RFC Change Policy | February 2024 |
| Carpenter | Expires 29 August 2024 | [Page] |
This document clarifies the policy framework for changes to RFC formats and associated tool chains.¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-carpenter-rswg-format-details/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the RSWG Working Group mailing list (mailto:rswg@rfc-editor.org), which is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rswg/.¶
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The scope of work of the RFC Series Working Group (RSWG) is set by [RFC9280]. In particular, Section 3 states that policies drafted by the RSWG "might include, but are not limited to, document formats, processes for publication and dissemination of RFCs, and overall management of the RFC Series."¶
This definition is not explicit about the level of detail in document formats. Specifically, do technical details of the markup language, graphics formats, and internationalized character sets lie within the policy remit of RSWG, or are they the responsibility of the RFC Production Center and the IETF LLC tool support team?¶
The purpose of the present document is to resolve this question.¶
High level issues, such as what markup is used for documents (currently XML2RFCv3), what graphics format (current a subset of SVG), and what publication formats are used (currently plain UTF-8 text, HTML, and PDF/A) are policy matters in the purview of the RSWG, with approval by the RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB). Similarly, how to manage changes in these formats is clearly a policy matter.¶
Technical details, for example of the XML2RFC vocabulary and of the SVG subset, need to be agreed as the result of a consensus process that includes the tools team, the RPC, and the wider community. The best existing venue for forming such a consensus is the RSWG, with approval by the RSAB. Since the RSWG was formed and announced as a policy working group, it is strongly recommended that such technical details should be developed by one or more designated RSWG design teams, as foreseen in Section 3.1.1.4 of [RFC9280]. The resulting technical documents will be remitted to the RSWG and processed as if they were policy documents.¶
Practical issues about the range of tools provided for authors, for readers and for the RPC's own use, and when and how such tools are implemented and updated, are operational matters in the purview of the RPC and of IETF LLC.¶
No IANA actions are needed.¶
This document does not directly affect the security of the Internet.¶
Useful comments were received from ...¶