On 12. May 2024, at 21:55, John R Levine <johnl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >>> RFC 9043: ISO/IECC 9899:2018, costs CHF 216 >> (This is an example where we could be a bit better in doing our homework [1].) > > There are lots of standards where you can find close to final drafts or pirate copies on the net, but I wouldn't want to make a practice of depending on it. That may be true in some cases, but the pertinent WGs of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 (WG14 for C, WG21 for C++ (*)) actively ensure that access to their specifications remains open through publicly available documents that are technically equivalent. This has recently been fueled some more by JTC1 pretty much reneging on the previous approach of making IT related standards publicly available themselves [1]. The reality in this part of the universe is that the publicly available documents are the ones that actually get implemented, not the “official” ones you would need to buy access to. We should acknowledge (and embrace!) that reality and make it dead easy for implementers to find the publicly available documents. We currently don’t have an instance, established process, or any tools that would help with the process of inserting information about the publicly available documents into our specs. The RFC editor could do this as a matter of routine editing (checked in AUTH48 as many other reference fixes), or we could add support through bib.ietf.org <http://bib.ietf.org/>, or both. We could have policy in place that explains to unwilling authors that it is normal to insert this information. This is what I meant by saying we could be a bit better in doing our homework. (Not at all a complete solution to the underlying problem, but eminently useful where it works.) Grüße, Carsten (*) I haven’t recently checked about, say, COBOL, or Prolog. [1]: https://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/ For these documents, there is no paywall in the way, but (relatively mild) legal thicketwork. (I haven’t checked which of the standards you listed in your original message are available from this well-hidden site.) -- last-call mailing list -- last-call@xxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to last-call-leave@xxxxxxxx
