On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 6:50 AM, Neal Campbell <nealk...@me.com> wrote:
> Brian > > I know your love of standards is sometimes hard to contain but this is not > a time for standards, merely a published protocol. Why would Flex want a > committee sitting on top of a protocol that only talks to their equipment? > Every protocol that the Internet runs on started out as an idea. People hacked together a protocol, wrote some code, and tried it out. They also described their protocol in a document called a Request for Comments (RFC). The idea is to tell others what they did and how they did it, requesting feedback on how others think it might work better, i.e. a REQUEST for COMMENTS. So, an RFC is NOT a standard. It is a description of how something is currently being done. It is precisely what we are talking about doing. The content of an RFC may change many times before everyone (rough consensus) agrees that it has become stable and static enough to become a standard. The idea that you write an RFC and that immediately becomes a standard is not how the IETF works. Rough consensus and running code is the key to an *eventual* Internet standard. So, by describing how it is done, you get others working on similar things to work with you on something that might interoperate. Flex is well out in front of other manufacturers that it is no skin off Flex's nose to do this. But it clearly says that they are open to working with others on this. "No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy," is certainly apropos here. The protocol will change as we learn what works and what doesn't. Still, that doesn't mean we can't write it down and use it as reference while we work. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 3191 Western Dr. Cameron Park, CA 95682 br...@lloyd.com +1.767.617.1365 (Dominica) +1.916.877.5067 (USA) _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
