[Old-standards] Quandary: RFC1742 AppleTalk Management Information Base II

[Pekka Savola]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:
> Not that I think it matters much for this decision....
>
> Cisco IOS claims support for RFC 1243, which has been obsoleted by RFC 1742. 
> Is that an indication that RFC 1742 is not "cruft"?

Well.  Eliot was deferring this discussion, so now we have it.

Half-seriously: maybe the fact that Cisco IOS haven't bothered to 
upgrade (the documentation?) from an RFC from 1991 to RFC from 1995 is 
a hint enough that this technology is something nobody cares about or 
is asking in CFPs..

That said, lots of vendors implement AppleTalk.  That is IMHO not the 
point, but rather:

1) whether we recognize AppleTalk as an abandoned 
protocol/specification, i.e., that the IETF won't be interested in 
producing further RFCs on it.  (I think we've been at that point for 
at least 5 years now)

(And maybe,) 2) whether we think AppleTalk has widespread (and valid) 
usage nevertheless still.

That's what making stuff Historic should (IMHO) be about, not what's 
implemented as a legacy technology.  As said, implementations out 
there are full of all kinds of legacy cruft, but it's OK to make that 
historic..

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy                    kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings