The need for smaller protocol specifications

Dean Willis dean.willis at softarmor.com
Wed Jul 2 15:06:17 CEST 2003


Erik said:
> I suspect that as a result of this, protocol specifications 
> become longer and more complex and, even if the solutions to 
> deal with individual pieces are separable, in order to get 
> the protocol approved it might be necessary to deal with 
> many, if not all, of the issues.

I suspect that this intersects viciously with the "every possible issue must
be solved before publishing a proposed standard, because nothing ever makes
it to draft" behavior.

We HAVE been setting higher and higher standards for our work. I keep
expecting the next trivial protocol proposal to have to solve the
distributed-PKI problem while proving the NP-completeness of general
relativity and demonstrating a solution to world hunger all in order 0 time.

Seriously, I think the bars are set at the wrong levels -- the first rung is
just too high, the second is unachievable, and the third is unimaginable.


--
Dean



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