Hi -

>From: Ladislav Lhotka <[email protected]>
>Sent: Dec 19, 2015 12:07 AM
>To: Andy Bierman <[email protected]>
>Cc: NETMOD WG <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: [netmod] module update rules
...
>IMO, 6020(bis) is not a good place for such rules because
> their applicability depends on the context. Backward
> compatibility is a matter of policies and, above all,
> sound judgement of module authors/publishers/vendors.

C'mon.  Can't we at least *pretend* to be doing configuration
management?  Being able to decide whether two things (schemata
or actual instances of configuration) are in some sense
the same, "compatible", or different is much too fundamental
to the problem space to be left to whim.

...
>> Vendors implement work-in-progress at their own risk.
>
>Yes, and that's why no vendor is very eager to do that.
> I actually think we should try harder to reduce the module
> churn already in the I-D phase, if possible.

SNMP dealt with this by not issuing the authoritative identifier
(the OID) until RFC publication, so anyone implementing the
work-in-progress did so in their own OID space.  Perhaps it
would be worthwhile to initiate a similar practice here.

>> IMO we should do a better job publishing RFCs on time,
>> and implement RFCs.
>
>But doing that means there is no way back - because of
> the update rules. We have to accept that even modules
>published in RFCs may need to be changed in ways that
> aren't permitted by sec. 10, based on feedback from
> implementations.

Why is that a problem?  If it turns out that the published
model is substantially flawed, then it seems that treating
the fixed module as a distinct entity is the right thing to
do.  Keeping the same name might help someone save face, but
it would in no way aid interoperability.  The basic idea is
that if one changes something too much, it becomes something
else.  This holds so often true in life that I'm surprised
that anyone would be surprised by this.

Randy

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