Re: About referenced documents...

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At 1.42p +1300 2007.11.01, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
On 2007-11-01 12:08, lconroy wrote:
Hi Tom, folks,
 Many thanks for that. This is exactly what I wanted to know.
I understand that this is a distraction from the wider IPR crusade,
but I wonder if people should consider ensuring that our standards
refer to just this kind of open document (e.g. refer to SUS/opengroup
standards rather than the original POSIX/IEEE standards).

But what if the freely available document is slightly out of date
or slightly different compared to the official one? That isn't a sound
basis for a normative reference. In such a case, I would consider
a normative reference to the official (paid) standard and an informative
reference to the free one, with a warning.

   Brian

This is a valid approach, especially if there is an expectation to benefit from any future progression of the referenced document, and especially if there are likely to be frequent updates to it. At a minimum this can include subsequent minor correction revisions (bug fixes, editorial clarifications, etc.). Or the referenced document may describe some architecture explicitly expected to grow or evolve over time. In both cases, any 3rd party org that is republishing the referenced document may have trouble keeping their version up to date. Unambiguously referencing an unambiguous version number helps, but when there are frequent changes the problem is architectural, and the best solution seems to be to always reference the source, not any re-published versions, at least as the primary reference.

So, if secondary references to re-published versions are to be used, a strong warning is appropriate. Ideally, re-published versions of documents would also always include strong warnings to check the source for any newer versions before using.

	-- Chris G.

// -------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Chris Grigg
//  Head of Standards, Beatnik, Inc.
//  Chair, Technical Standards Board, MIDI Manufacturers Association
//  Chair, Mobile Working Group, MIDI Manufacturers Association
// -------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Beatnik: Enhanced Audio Solutions for Mobile Devices


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