Greetings again. Some people have started asking (mostly off-list)
when the Atom format would be "done" so they can implement and, more
importantly, deploy. This message gives our best shot at answering
the question.
The status of the format document is that the -09 draft is in the
IESG evaluation queue. This means that the IESG will consider it
soon. In fact, it has been scheduled for their telechat next
Thursday. (There are many documents scheduled; see
<http://www.ietf.org/IESG/agenda.html>.) The IESG members are now
reading the document in preparation for the telechat, and they may
(or may not) be discussing it among themselves.
Next Thursday, the IESG might [a] say "this is fine as it is, no
changes needed". It is much more likely that they will [b] say "this
will be OK after you make the following changes in the -10 draft" and
they will list a handful of changes that range from editorial nits to
adding clarifications. There is a real chance they will [c] say "This
has some real technical deficiencies, please revise this and show us
-10 before we make a final decision."
If [a] or [b]:
Because there are no technical changes requested to the document,
implementers can get ready to deploy. The only significant change
that will appear in -10 will be that the final Atom 1.0 namespace
will be included. Tim is responsible for getting that minted, but we
won't do so until we are sure that there is a technically-stable
document; we don't expect the namespace creation to take much time.
As soon as the namespace is minted, we'll tell the WG. (There will be
other changes in -10, such as the last editorial nits, and the
addition of the longer acknowledgements list. In fact, even if [a]
happens, there will be a -10.)
Also, after -10 is published as an Internet Draft, Scott Hollenbeck
will remove the last "hold" on it and it will become an IETF Proposed
Standard. Note that it is really a standard at that moment, *not*
when it gets published as an RFC (which will be 3 or 4 months later
<sigh>). Implementers can start shipping as soon as it is a standard,
and not wait for the RFC.
If [c]:
However, in the case of [c], implementers should put their
development on hold. If the IESG asks for a technical change, it will
take at least a few weeks for the Atom WG to reply either with the
change or with a stack of solid arguments why our original text was,
in fact, correct. In the latter case, the IESG will probably take at
least a few weeks to agree with us, or for them to say "no, we really
meant it". There could be multiple rounds, so the -10 might not be
final.
Summary:
The -09 draft of the format cannot be considered final and
deployable. The IESG may ask/demand changes in it before it becomes a
standard, and we will not give it a "final" namespace until the IESG
says that it won't be changed. At that time, we will quickly get a
nice namespace minted, and tell the WG what it is. There is a real
chance that the document will be a standard two weeks from now; there
is a real chance it will take a few months.
If all this IETF process stuff is confusing, reading the Tao of the
IETF (<http://www.ietf.org/tao.html>) might help. Also, there is a
link to the IETF status of the document on the wiki
(<http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/FrontPage>).
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium