At 6:28 PM +0700 6/23/01, Robert Elz wrote:
> From: Bob Hinden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> | After some thought the chairs and ADs think it would be best to also
> | change the working group acronym from IPng to IPv6.
>
>Why? This seems all gloss, no substance, and a bunch of meaningless
>work and disruption for no benefit.
The main reason for the name change is to make it easier for people
to find the online and meeting information about IPv6. The entry
for this working group on the IETF web site's list of WGs currently
says "ipngwg IPNG". That's hardly an obvious place to look for
IPv6-related information, for anyone who isn't an IETF old-timer.
("IPNG? What's that? Internet Portable Network Graphics?
Internet PiNG?")
Also, as it is now, one has to give a little history lesson every
time one mentions this working group's name.
>IPng and IPv6 are the same thing (for the past 7 years, and the next
>7 I hope). Whatever one means, so does the other - the focus is identical.
IPng was the working term for whatever the IETF was going to choose as
the next version of IP, while it was trying to make that determination
(remember the temporary IPng Area?). Once a decision was made, the
protocol was officially named (and numbered) IPv6 and that's what
everyone now calls it, both inside and outside the IETF, apart from
a few curmudgeons.
>I have no problems with anything of substance in the charter, though I
>do find the juxtaposition of the following two paragraphs amusing, to
>say the least...
>
> New work items not listed above require the approval of the working
> group and Internet Area directors before they will be taken on by the
> working group.
>
> The working group would welcome contributions on the following topics
> (this is not an exhaustive list):
>
>Which is to say, we can't do anything not listed above, but we want to
>do all of the following (none of which was listed above). Weird...
No, it's trying to encourage contributions on specific additional
topics, but noting that they will be subject to an approval process.
"Approval" is one possible outcome of the approval process. Some
other possible outcomes are formation of a new working group or
IRTF research group, delegation to different existing WG or RG,
or simple rejection.
Steve
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