I am surprised at the lack of comment on this I-D on its use of terminology. I have seen and learnt from many discussions on this list that have teased out what concept it is we are really talking about (e.g. identity v identifier) and this I-D seems somewhat weak in that regard. Thus the summary talks of 'parameters by prefixing the latter ' while the introduction changes that to 'the "X-" convention for named parameters in application protocols ' which is then refined to 'only parameters with textual names, not parameters that are expressed as numbers' which seems to me a false dichotomy. The I-D seems to be conflating the ideas of name and value and a few other things as well. I know of very few parameters in IETF protocols that do not have names and cannot recall one where the name is not textual. The I-D seems to be assuming that the parameter name and the parameter value and so on are synonymous, identical, equivalent and perhaps a few other things as well, and having assumed that, then it is sufficient to say that one or other of these concepts are textual and it is to these that this I-D applies. This seems to me to be rather too loosely worded to become an RFC. Tom Petch ----- Original Message ----- From: "The IESG" <iesg-secretary@xxxxxxxx> To: "IETF-Announce" <ietf-announce@xxxxxxxx> Cc: <apps-discuss@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 7:47 PM Subject: Last Call: <draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-03.txt> (Deprecating Use of the"X-" Prefix in Application Protocols) to Best Current Practice > > The IESG has received a request from the Applications Area Working Group > WG (appsawg) to consider the following document: > - 'Deprecating Use of the "X-" Prefix in Application Protocols' > <draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-03.txt> as a Best Current Practice > > The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits > final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the > ietf@xxxxxxxx mailing lists by 2012-03-15. Exceptionally, comments may be > sent to iesg@xxxxxxxx instead. In either case, please retain the > beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting. > > Abstract > > > Historically, designers and implementers of application protocols > have often distinguished between "standard" and "non-standard" > parameters by prefixing the latter with the string "X-" or similar > constructions. In practice, this convention causes more problems > than it solves. Therefore, this document deprecates the "X-" > convention for textual parameters in application protocols. > > > > > The file can be obtained via > http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash/ > > IESG discussion can be tracked via > http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash/ballot/ > > > No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D. > > > _______________________________________________ > IETF-Announce mailing list > IETF-Announce@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce > > _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf