Just a few final observations, then I'll bug out of the discussion.
1. Some folks scoff at the idea of reading I-Ds and RFCs on a PDA, yet they think it's
necessary to accommodate those who would read them on 1950s-style teletypes or other
old, outdated equipment. We say that lines should be, what, 76 characters long? Why?
What about 40 characters per line? Then I could read the RFCs on my old Commodore
64 in addition to my PDA. ;-) What *is* the lowest common denominator, anyway?
2. RFCs have a limited lifetime. RFC 1 might be 32 years old, but it's probably only
relevant to historians. Historians will probably find the tools they need to view old
documents. So, if RFCs are maintained in a format that outlives the technology
documented in the RFCs, then there's no problem, right? (Speaking from the aspect of
archives.) Anyone know how long ASCII will be around?
--
Doug Sauder
