From: Marty Fouts (usenet-format@fogey.com)
Date: Wed Oct 06 1999 - 22:18:25 CDT
Dan Schlitt filled the aether with:
[snip]
> The SNMP folks finally made progress by appointing a "design
> team". That seems to be Brad's suggestion for this WG. Perhaps it
> would work. But it depends on having some good technical people who
> have the respect of the working group who are willing to put in the
> effort.
In my opinion, the problem is that there are too many competing
agendas. Standards bodies are not the places to design new software,
as has been proven time and again, and so, really, as we are writing a
standard, our job *is* dotting Is and crossing Ts.
On the other hand, we put a lot of effort into dealing with various
design proposals that might actually be good things, but suffer from
the fatal flaw of either being overwhelmingly opposed, unimplemented,
or in some cases, both.
Sometimes, it is OK for a specification to "stagnate." In my opinion,
the best thing to do with Usenet is codify current practice and let it
continue. Those who want to replace it should do that by replacing
it, not by trying to redesign it while it's still running.
Marty
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