Subject: finding the union of multiple documents (was Re: Problem with new Note Well)

From: "George, Wes" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:50:07 -0500

On 1/27/14, 12:20 PM, "Dave Crocker" <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>      5.  Expecting an average IETF engineer to consult 4 different
>BCPs, in order to understand what is required of them is not reasonable.
>  Nor is all each document relevant.  So, in effect, the references are
>overly broad, as well as too complicated. (See point 6.)
>
><snip>
>      3.  We need all of the IPR rules for IETF participation to be in a
>single, simple, clear document that is easily understandable by an
>average engineer. (See point 1.)

Why should IETF engineers get special treatment over anyone trying to
implement an IETF standard? This is a much larger problem that exists for
many of IETF’s documents that have been partially updated by subsequent
documents rather than completely replaced/obsoleted by a BIS version.
Trying to follow the updates/replaces chain on some sets of documents to
figure out what you’re actually supposed to implement can be quite
frustrating. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a modular document management
system that was capable of using metadata to take an original document,
the identified set of changes from one or more subsequent “updating”
documents, and synthesizing a new document that has all of the info in one
place?
Seems a worthwhile problem to try to solve, especially as the series ages.
I bet we could do it even if we had to keep the existing LPR-friendly
all-text format. ;-)

Wes George

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From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 14:04:30 -0800

> documents rather than completely replaced/obsoleted by a BIS version.

I'll encourage avoiding this bit of scope-creep.  As with most such 
cases, it's not that the point is not valid.  It's valid.  And pursuing 
simplification is a worth goal.

But it's also a much, much larger task.

In addition, application of IETF IPR requirements by participants, in 
real-time, is an entirely different behavioral demand, from what a 
programmer needs to do in the much more casual pace of working "offline".

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net