RE: Image attachments to ASCII RFCs (was: Re: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative Format in Addition to ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC (draft-ash-alt-formats))

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  *> 
  *> Note 2: Unlike some others on the IETF list, I recognize the 
  *> importance of having illustrations in better-than-ASCII forms. 
  *> We may disagree on how often it is important, or even on whether 
  *> "important" should be a criterion or the criterion should be 
  *> closer to "convenience".  I am nonetheless very sympathetic to 
  *> the arguments that fancy illustrations often hide fuzzy thinking 
  *> while the discipline of producing ASCII line art tends to 
  *> clarify thinking and encourage simplicity in design.  Perhaps as 
  *> a result of those possible disagreement, we might disagree on 
  *> the relevance of ASCII versions of text and ASCII approximations 
  *> to the more advanced, image-type, illustrations.  But we at 
  *> least share the belief that there is a problem in this area that 
  *> should be solved.  I am not positive that even that position has 
  *> IETF community consensus.
  *> 
  *> regards,
  *>      john


John,

This discussion has seemed to overlook that fact that for the past 20
years or so the RFC Editor HAS offered a .ps/.pdf alternative output
format; it just can't be normative.  With very few exceptions, a
protocol specifications (that's what we are supposed to be documenting
here, the last time I checked) can be defined normatively quite
satisfactorily using ASCII.  But, sometimes it is helpful to add
additional explanatory (non-normative) diagrams, equations, etc., which
can be in an auxiliary .ps/.pdf version.  I believe there are roughly
50 worked examples of this approach among the 4000+ RFCs in the
archive.

The one caveat is that processing RFCs with a .ps/.pdf version does
take more time and effort, so we hope it does not happen very
often.

Bob Braden


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