I believe this is all part of improving the IETF Electronic Diversity
picture. Just like we have to deal with greater people personal
globalization diversity issues, there is also greater technology and
legal diversity issues to deal with. So many tools, so many languages,
so many OSes, so many devices and communications API platforms, where
are the proposals for better, new "IETF Global Commons?" Guidelines for
technical writing for the new world engineers to use, etc.
For me, when I saw this RFC, the things crossed my mind:
- I have trouble with the licensing statement. The RFC describes public
domain technology. It requires passing this thru your lawyer(s) to see
if it can used in our commercial product lines.
- Far too big to distribute via a RFC. Provide a link to some RFC site.
Note, I'm just saying in general. I did not read in detail if
the RFC already included links to the official source code.
- Because it was too big, it requires a stripper/parser, although a good
power programmer can quickly macro-clean it up. The RFCSTRIP tool,
well, what language is that? I'm not an *nix person. So this adds to the
complexity for the Windows shops to get at these hashing functions. Of
course, its a piece of cake for a sharp programmer, but even the
sharpest knives eventually get dull.
--
HLS
On 6/28/2013 4:53 AM, Dearlove, Christopher (UK) wrote:
I'd actually tried the authors, but no reply yet (only a few days). I also tried the RFC Editor thinking they might have e.g. XML from which extraction might have been easier, but also no response yet. And I had found several libraries, but not the RFC code. I can't see any suggestion that the library you indicate includes that code, it also bills itself as a C++ library, which the RFC code is not (and also not what I want, but that's not a subject for this list).
But the broader point is that if it's worth the IETF publishing the code as an RFC, it's worth making the code available straightforwardly.
For me, a thanks to Tony Hansen, who did the extraction for me. (That makes me feel a little guilty, why should he do my work I could have done?) But the point of posting on this list was to say that the code should be available so that each person wanting that code doesn't have to do that again.
Christopher