ISSUE: Misrepresentation of application focus
Harald Tveit Alvestrand
harald at alvestrand.no
Mon Jun 16 13:34:51 CEST 2003
-issue- section 2.3 states:
The IETF has historically standardized protocol components rather
than complete systems but the current greater emphasis on work in the
Applications area tends to require more engineering in the large.
ISSUE: The "current greater emphasis" on applications is probably false.
SUGGESTED RESOLUTION: Change text to "but as we have learned more about the
ways in which systems on the Internet interact, design of components needs
to take into account more and more external restraints, and the
understanding of these restraints tends to require more engineering in the
large."
Background: Having watched the applications area pretty carefully over many
years, I would say that at the moment, the IETF places a good deal less
emphasis on the applications area than it did 3 years ago - mostly because
the people doing applications place less emphasis on the IETF; they've gone
elsewhere.
This may be good or this may be bad (I personally think it's bad, but your
mileage may vary) - but I think the document should be corrected on this
point.
I agree with the statement that we've tended to need more engineering in
the large, but I don't think it's correct to "blame" Applications for it.
More information about the Problem-statement
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